Pedestrian Behavioral Characteristics Research Articles

Models for pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour analysis at unprotected mid-block crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions

Pedestrian safety is an important aspect while crossing the road and it can be explained by pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour. The statistical models such as multiple linear regression (MLR) is often used to model linear relationships between dependent variable (viz., pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour) and independent variables, due to their ability to quantitatively predict the effect of various factors on the dependent variable. However such linear models cannot consider the effect of several variables on the output variable, due to primary assumptions of normality, linear, homoscedasticity and multicollinearity. In this regard, the non-linear models based on the artificial neural network (ANN), which are free from assumptions of linear models, can be easily employed for obtaining the effect of several input variables on the pedestrian accepted gap size. However, researchers have rarely applied ANN modelling technique for predicting the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour, as the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour depends on several pedestrian, traffic and vehicular characteristics. The ANN based models would be quite useful in establishing relationship between these factors on the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour at midblock crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions. In this direction, the present study adopts both MLR as well as ANN with different pedestrian, traffic and vehicular characteristics to assess the significant contributing factors for pedestrians’ gap acceptance behaviour at unprotected mid-block crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions. For this purpose, a video graphic survey was conducted at a six lane divided road at unprotected mid-block crossing in Mumbai, India. The data such as pedestrian (gender and age), vehicular, traffic and pedestrian behavioural characteristics were extracted to model pedestrian accepted gaps. The model results show that pedestrian rolling behaviour has a significant effect on pedestrian accepted gap size. The model results concluded that ANN has a better prediction with possibility to consider the effect of more number of variables on the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour as compared to the MLR model under mixed traffic conditions. However, the quantification of significant contributing variables on pedestrian accepted gap size is easy by MLR model as compared to the ANN technique. So, both models have their own significant role in pedestrian gap acceptance analysis. The developed models may be useful to enhance the existing mid-block crosswalk facilities or planning new facilities by more accurate prediction of the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour considering the influence of various factors under mixed traffic conditions.

Investigating Pedestrian Behavior Differences of Walking Streets and their Effect Factors with Three Wuhu Cases

It is found that the use of pedestrian streets varies widely in Chinese cities. This paper was intended to compare the pedestrian behavior characteristics and to discuss the effects of market competition, built environment and mobility governance of walking streets, taking three cases in Wuhu city for study. Except pedestrian flow, trip purpose, trip frequency, travel distance, dwelling time and mode share was compared based on sampling questionnaire survey. It further investigated pedestrians’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the streets, as well as main factors affecting pedestrians’ behavioral preferences, including the scale and types of business activities, landscape, circulation and transit service of the streets. The author concludes that market comparative advantage, pleasant walking environment and good transit accessibility are keys to enhancing the vitality of walking streets.

Effect of Vehicular Lanes on Pedestrian Gap Acceptance Behaviour

Walking is a key element of balanced transportation system that has often been ignored when planning any transportation facility. Pedestrians select appropriate gaps in vehicular stream depending on their demographic, vehicle and pedestrian behavioural characteristics and roadway geometry. If, pedestrians are crossing a typical urban two lane undivided road, then they may search more near gaps in traffic stream instead of far gaps. Whereas, pedestrians need to search vehicular gaps in each lane with respect to direction of travel (curb or median) while crossing more number of vehicular lanes (six lane divided road). Such pedestrian behavioural aspects need to be studied to understand the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour while crossing more number of vehicular lanes. With this in mind, the objective of this study is to model pedestrian gap selection behaviour while crossing six lane divided road. The pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour has also been modeled to find out the pedestrian critical gap during road crossing by using multiple linear regression technique with effect of pedestrian behavioural characteristics. Probability of pedestrian gap acceptance has also been modeled considering pedestrian decision making process based on the discrete choice theory. To develop these models, field survey has been conducted at urban six lane divided un-controlled mid-block location at Worli in Mumbai, India. The real video data was used to set up pedestrian behavioural characteristics as explanatory variables for the model. The most important explanatory variables such as vehicular gap size, movement of pedestrian from the curb or median, rolling gap (pedestrian rolling over available small gaps), type of gap, pedestrian speed change condition and pedestrian waiting time have been included in the developed model. Further model transferability is checked with other location and it has been observed that the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour models developed in this study represents quite well the pedestrian behaviour at urban six lane divided uncontrolled mid- block location. The inference of these models will be useful to assess existing facilities and suggest suitable corrective measures to improve pedestrian safety.

Research on Behavior and Psychological Characteristics of Pedestrians in Terminal

Terminal is the crowded place of human traveling activities; the security issue has been the top priority of the operation and management in terminals. Pedestrians constitute the absolute subject of various activities in terminal, so it is critical to have a research on pedestrian behavior and psychological characteristics, as well as the reasonable arrangement of management and operation. This paper analyzes the pedestrian traveling environment and the characteristics of their behavior in terminals. In terms of the passengers, the paper proposes the idea of hierarchy of needs and some suggestions on mitigating the congestion in terminals, and on the improvement of pedestrians’ security. The study is conducted based on a dedicated survey of the pedestrian psychological characteristics.

Relationships among Lifestyle Attributes and Attitudes toward Pedestrian Facilities

This study investigates the influence of lifestyle of individuals on their walking behavior and their expectations from pedestrian infrastructure. This project is part of a series of studies looking into region specific characteristics of pedestrian behavior. Part of the challenge during this project has been to identify attributes that relate to lifestyle of individuals and collection of relevant data. Large part of the data collection has been carried out over five urban areas in Japan and a supplementary survey has been carried out in Sydney, Australia. The survey has focused on eight lifestyle indicators and ten attitudinal questions related to walking and experience with pedestrian facilities. Statistical analysis and correspondence analysis technique applied in this project have revealed that lifestyle attributes and regional characteristics both have to be considered to obtain an accurate picture of pedestrian attitudes. Some implications of relevance to the planning community have been mentioned.

駅前広場における歩行者のパーソナルスペースに関する研究

In a station square, avoidance behavior happens frequently. In order to create a more comfortable and safe walking space, it is necessary to consider people-to-people avoidance behavior and pedestrian personal space. In this research, we analyzed avoidance behavior by pedestrian pathways and discussed pedestrian personal space through the relative positions of two pedestrians in avoidance behavior. The characteristics of pedestrian avoidance behavior and personal spacewere as follows:1. Pedestrian avoidance behavior has significant differences between moving in the opposite direction and in the same direction.2. The distance of avoidance behavior in the morning is the least.3. Under free walking conditions, the locus of the object's relative position can be considered as the boundary of the subject's personal space.4. Reduce avoidance behavior: a. Give enough spacefor pathways of pedestrians. b. Consider the situation of users.

Adaptability Analysis of Service Facilities in Transfer Subway Stations

Service capability and matching degree of transfer facilities are directly related to the operational efficiency and safety of a subway station. Owing to differences in planning and construction, the transfer subway stations in developing countries have some defects in facility size and serviceability, which cause a decline in service performance, operation efficiency, and security level. In order to solve the problems, traffic investigations were conducted on the form, size, and operation status of several typical transfer subway facilities. The service facilities were classified within a subway station in this research by considering service objects, service forms, service functions, and several other features. In addition, pedestrian behavior and pedestrian flow characteristics in different service facilities were analyzed in detail. The research results are deemed meaningful for the optimization of service facilities in subway stations and for the development of urban pedestrian transportation systems.

Effect of the Stage of Life and Lifestyle on Pedestrian Behavior in East Asian Countries

Walking, a universally available transport mode, has been important throughout human history. Recently, the emphasis on development of sustainable societies with emphasis on low carbon footprint has regenerated interest in pedestrian facilities and creation of seamless transport systems. Novelty of research work presented here is in its attempt to investigate walking in a framework consistent with the societal influence. For this purpose, general attitudes and preferences toward walking in different urban areas have been investigated to understand similarity and dissimilarity of pedestrian travel culture. This research work is based on field surveys in Japan Taiwan and South Korea. The present study provides a three-way comparison of pedestrian travel culture among the three countries. The paper focuses on the relationship between pedestrian behavioral characteristics, and personal characteristics such as lifestyle and stage of life. The analysis reveals that each country has an own identity in terms of the pedestrian culture.

620 最適速度関数を用いた個別要素法歩行者モデルの構築

Traffic jams and congestion are generated in various places like roads, festivals, disaster areas, etc. They cause mental stress and increase the incidence of traffic accidents. Thus, in designing environments in which people can move smoothly, traffic flow analysis is important. Currently, use of the micro model in pursuing individual particle behavior is common in traffic flow analysis. In this model, because the objects that become particles are capable of independent motion, the relation of action-reaction doesn't work between particles. Therefore, we constructed a micro-type pedestrian model in which particle behaviors depict a pedestrian's behavior characteristics in detail by the Distinct Element Method (DEM), and analyzed the traffic flow. In this study, to aim micro-type pedestrian model depicting the behavior characteristics in detail, model-enhanced DEM is constructed. The acceleration computation of the particle modeled in this model incorporate the Optimal Velocity (OV) model. After that the algorithm that can avoid even if a obstacle particle exists on the target direction was constructed and was incorporated in the 2D model. After that, the avoidance simulation, which takes into account the obstacle or other pedestrians, is done by using the 2D DEM-base traffic model. At the same time, an avoidance experiment similar to the simulations is done, and the effectiveness of the model is verified by comparing the results. As a result, the simulation showed similar behavior and velocity distribution to the experiment. Therefore, the effectiveness of the constructed traffic model could be confirmed.

Research on Pedestrian Behavior and Traffic Characteristics at Unsignalized Midblock Crosswalk

Pedestrians are vulnerable road users of the traffic system. In China, many pedestrians lack a knowledge of traffic rules and are not fully aware of safety problems. A high-risk area for pedestrians, the unsignalized midblock crosswalk is a conflict zone between pedestrians and through vehicles. In this paper, behaviors and traffic characteristics of pedestrians walking through the unsignalized midblock crosswalk without being disturbed by other pedestrians are analyzed. The data, including pedestrian speed, waiting delay, and clustering, are obtained by counting and measuring with a video camera. Pedestrian behaviors are analyzed with the use of comparisons between various categories and through statistics analysis. Pedestrian behaviors are interpreted further by analyzing pedestrians’ tactics when they cross the street and the valid gap in the vehicle flow, based on observations and measurements of pedestrians starting to walk across and of vehicle arrivals. Finally, the similarities and differences between this research and other research is explained by comparing pedestrian speed studies. Results of this research will not only help improve research on pedestrian characteristics at interrupted pedestrian facilities but will also help in developing traffic safety audit work and related countermeasures.

The development of pedestrian signal timing models considering pedestrian behavior and location

In this research, the models for predicting pedestrian signal timing method are developed using multi-linear regression models and actual survey. Major reasons underlying pedestrian signal timing method are examined in an effort to improve the service for pedestrians. First, pedestrian crossing speed is examined by dividing the sites into commercial zone, school zone, mixed zone and so on. Second, pedestrian crossing time classified by perception—reaction time and congestion time are explored to develop the pedestrian signal-timing model. Third, with the examined perception-reaction time and congestion time, the extra time for crossing is defined. This research reveals that it is necessary to reset the pedestrian walking time according to surrounding land use and pedestrian behavior characteristics.

心理的ストレス概念に基づく歩行行動のモデル化

A computer simulation of pedestrian flow is an effective method for examining relationships between pedestrian space and pedestrian behavior within that space. However, the characteristics of pedestrian behavior are not fully modeled in earlier studies. In this paper, a model describing pedestrian behavior is proposed by utilizing the concept of mental stress. Unknown parameters of the model are estimated using observed data from real pedestrian behavior. The estimated model can describe the differences of pedestrian behavior according to walkers' characteristics. Through some of the simulations in the proposed model, we can examine comfort or safety of pedestrian flows within crowded pedestrian areas.

回避行動開始点の判定と前方回避距離 : 歩行者の回避行動に関する研究(II)

The characteristics of pedestrian behavior avoiding obstacles is discussed in this paper. The results are summarized as follows : (1) The most appropriate method to define automatically the beginning point of avoiding behavior was found to sellect the point where the curvature is biggest. (2) According to this method, some distances between a point of a pedestrian starting to avoid and a point of a standing obstacle : Sx were measured. The Sx of each obstacle is different, and it's value is 6.74m for a person backwards, 6.82m for one sideways, 8.84m for one facing to and 7.34m for an object.