City Pedestrian Research Articles

Technology roadmap of risk identification and collision avoidance decision-making in autonomous vehicles for domestic animals

At present, the multi-targets autonomous vehicles identify are mainly various road users such as vehicles and pedestrians in cities. However, in recent years, there are increasing vehicle-animal accidents in pastoral areas of China, and there is a lack of corresponding practical intelligent safety warning measurements. In order to realise the identification and collision avoidance of typical animals, this study obtains the basic characteristics of collisions and the animals’ behavioural characteristics from the pastoral accidents investigation. Firstly, an attempt to focus on the use of the algorithm of the binocular infra-red equipment is made, with the main targets of identification being domestic animals at night or under low brightness conditions. Secondly, the algorithm technology roadmap from the identification and the risk assessment to collision avoidance decision-making is designed. Further, based on the technical route, a feasible solution and overall technical program is presented, which outlines the five aspects of the proposed engineering-ready scheme’s architecture. The methodology used involves transfer learning and the PSMNet network model. The paper concludes that the system can predict the animal’s movement and make proper decisions by utilising binocular infra-red equipment, integrating its algorithms and the support of its behavioural risk assessment. The research results will contribute to the animal collision avoidance technology and the traffic safety in pastoral areas in the future.

A design workflow for effective solar shading of pedestrian paths

Shading pedestrian paths is strategically important to ensure accessibility and comfort for pedestrians in cities. Limited applicability in practice of previous research about the effectiveness of natural and artificial shading devices was found. This paper proposes a workflow to design effective installations of shading devices on sidewalks; it relies on a design tool developed prioritising compatibility with other software/processes for its application to urban design. The methodology was tested on the city of Milan; the performance of 60 % linear path in shade was set as the design goal. Based on solar radiation exposure of urban canyons, a time of the day was associated with each simulated summer scenario. A library of shading devices was compiled allowing designers to test various proposals. The workflow was applied at first to theoretical urban canyons, then to a real case study sidewalk. Results included a catalogue of solutions with installation guidelines, a table to estimate the recommended number of shading devices for each sidewalk location, and the opportunity to iteratively test master planning proposals. Four applications of the workflow were proposed in response to resources availability and increasing outcome suitability. The workflow would support urban designers in implementing solar radiation exposure analysis in their practice.

What do pedestrians consider when choosing a route? The role of safety, security, and attractiveness perceptions and the built environment during day and night walking

Increasing the use of non-motorized modes of transport, such as walking, is a worldwide objective aimed at improving the sustainability of cities. However, pedestrians may not choose to walk if the infrastructure fails to meet their needs or if they hold unfavourable perceptions regarding the built environment (BE). The current study aims to identify the significance of route attributes and perceptions of attractiveness, safety, and security at the route level, which influence pedestrians' preferences for last-mile route choices. A cross-sectional design was employed, utilizing a questionnaire comprising a stated preference (SP) experiment and a perception survey. The study considered theory-informed attributes influencing pedestrian route choice preferences, including: (1) individual-level determinants, (2) physical-level determinants, and (3) time of day. Two separate models were developed, considering the time of day, to examine the differences in trade-offs within pedestrians' route choice preferences between day and night. The results revealed that both the BE and perceptions of the BE play a crucial role in determining pedestrian route choice behaviour. Pedestrians showed a preference for routes fully encompassed by mixed or residential land uses during the daytime. The presence of vacant land along the walking route significantly decreased the likelihood of choosing a route at night. Generally, pedestrians favoured shorter walking times, lower posted speed limits, and comfortable walkway grades in their routes. Female pedestrians tended to avoid routes that were not well-lit and pleasant at night. Lowering roadway speed limits emerged as a strategy to encourage walking in suburban areas. The findings of this study hold the potential to play an essential role in the development of effective policy initiatives targeted at pedestrians in cities.

Integrated tripartite modules for intelligent traffic light system

<span>The traffic in urban areas is primarily controlled by traffic lights, contributing to the excessive, if not properly installed, long waiting times for vehicles. The condition is compounded by the increasing number of road accidents involving pedestrians in cities across the world. Thus, this work presents an integrated tripartite module for an intelligent traffic light system. This system has enough ingredients for success that can solve the above challenges. The proposed system has three modules: the intelligent visual monitoring module, intelligent traffic light control module, and the intelligent recommendation module for emergency vehicles. The monitor module is a visual module capable of identifying the conditions of traffic in the streets. The intelligent traffic light control module configures many intersections in a city to improve the flow of vehicles. Finally, the intelligent recommendation module for emergency vehicles offers an optimal path for emergency vehicles. The evaluation of the proposed system has been carried out in Al-Sader city/Bagdad/Iraq. The intelligent recommendation module for the emergency vehicles module shows that the optimization rate average for the optimal path was in range 67.13% to 92%, where the intelligent traffic light control module shows that the optimization ratio was in range 86% to 91.8%.</span>

Climate-Resilient Robotic Facades: Architectural Strategies to Improve Thermal Comfort in Outdoor Urban Environments using Robotic Assembly

In the context of dense urban environments and climate change, pedestrians’ thermal experience plays an increasingly significant role in people’s health and well-being. In this research, the authors combine the fields of architecture, climate-responsive design, and robotic fabrication with the goal of investigating strategies to improve outdoor thermal comfort for pedestrians in cities with frequent extreme heat events. Based on a case study in the city of Munich, this paper presents findings into the technological approaches and methods for location-specific climate-resilient brick facades using robotic assembly. To achieve this goal, different bricklaying patterns were investigated to create a self-shading effect and thus reduce solar radiation and ultimately achieve an improved thermal condition for pedestrians moving along urban facades at street level. Using computer-aided microclimate simulation, generic self-shading brick pattern designs were tailored to highly location-specific microclimate requirements. Robotic assembly technology was used to produce such tailored, non-standard brickwork facades. The results of this research led to a data-informed design process with a demonstrator object being realized at 1:1 scale with a height of 2 m and a length of 3 m using a collaborative robot on site. Thermal measurements on the built demonstrator provided indications of reduced surface temperatures despite high solar radiation and thus validated the location-specific self-shading effects according to solar radiation simulation.

Empirical characterisation of agents’ spatial behaviour in pedestrian movement simulation

Route choice behaviour is a key factor in determining pedestrian movement flows throughout the urban space. Agent-based modelling, a simulation paradigm that allows modelling individual behaviour mechanisms to observe the emergence of macro-level patterns, has not employed empirical data regarding route choice behaviour in cities or accommodated heterogeneity. The aim of this paper is to present an empirically based Agent-Based Model (ABM) that accounts for behavioural heterogeneity in pedestrian route choice strategies, to simulate the movement of pedestrians in cities. We designed a questionnaire to observe to what degree people employ salient urban elements (local and global landmarks, regions, and barriers) and road costs (road distance, cumulative angular change) and to empirically characterise the agent behaviour in our ABM. We hypothesised that a heterogeneous ABM configuration based on the construction of agent typologies from empirical data would portray a more plausible picture of pedestrian movement flows than a homogeneous configuration, based on the same data, or a random configuration. The city of Münster (DE) was used as a case study. From a sample of 301 subjects, we obtained six clusters that differed in relation to the role of global elements (distant landmarks, barriers, and regions) and meaningful local elements along the route. The random configuration directed the agents towards natural elements and the streets of the historical centre. The empirically based configurations resulted in lower pedestrian volumes along roads designed for cars (25% decrease) but higher concentrations along the city Promenade and the lake (40% increase); based on our knowledge, we deem these results more plausible. Minor differences were identified between the heterogeneous and homogeneous configurations. These findings indicate that the inclusion of heterogeneity does not make a difference in terms of global patterns. Yet, we demonstrated that simulation models of pedestrian movement in cities should be at least based on empirical data at the average sample-level to inform urban planners about areas prone to high volumes of pedestrians.

АНАЛИЗ ПРИЧИН ДОРОЖНО-ТРАНСПОРТНЫХ ПРОИСШЕСТВИЙ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ ДАГЕСТАН И МЕТОДЫ РЕШЕНИЯ ПРОБЛЕМЫ

The problem of accidents on the roads is relevant all over the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1 million people die in road traffic accidents (RTA) every year in the world. Currently, in all countries of the world, the problem of reducing the level of accidents on roads is one of the most important social problems. Solving the problems of road safety and the level of accidents on the roads significantly affect the socio-economic development of the country. In 2006, the Russian Federation adopted the Federal Target Program to improve road safety for the period from 2006 to 2012, which was extended until 2020. The main goals and objectives of the program were: reducing the number of people injured in road accidents and reducing mortality, improving the organization of traffic and pedestrians in cities, reducing child road traffic injuries, developing a system for training vehicle drivers, improving active and passive safety of the design of vehicles , modernization of traffic control systems, improvement of the first medical aid system on the roads. This program contributed to the improvement of certain road safety indicators. According to statistics, the situation with accidents on the roads of the Republic of Dagestan remains unfavorable. It is known that the main causes of accidents are the non-compliance of one of the elements of the "Driver-car-road-environment" system with the established safety requirements. This paper provides statistical data on the state of accidents in the Republic, considers the problems of improving road safety, identifies the main directions and methods for their solution.

LiDAR-based method for analysing landmark visibility to pedestrians in cities: case study in Kraków, Poland

ABSTRACT We propose a method for analysing landmark visibility from a pedestrian’s perspective. A case study is performed in Kraków, a city with many architectural monuments, where airborne LiDAR is used to model both buildings and urban greenery. The proposed method involves preliminary and detailed stages. The preliminary stage entails an inverse analysis (I–Vis) that departs from the typical visibility analysis to enable the use of landmarks as observers instead of targets. I–Vis results in paths with high landmark visibility. The detailed stage involves the use of a virtual panorama (V-Pan) to determine the visual exposure of the landmarks. Landmarks considered visible by I–Vis are generally consistent with landmarks identified by V-Pan. Discrepancies occur when trees appear in the near field-of-view. In addition, the accuracy of the skyline length and visible landmark surface area is evaluated against ground observations. The obtained results show that V-Pan can evaluate landmark visibility with an accuracy of approximately 75%. The key contributions of the work to visibility analysis of urban landmarks are in the inverse viewshed strategy and evaluation of the visual exposure parameters on LiDAR virtual panoramas.

Unsafe behaviours in Iranian adult pedestrians

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable street users and unsafe traffic behaviour may endanger their lives. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of unsafe behaviours and their predictors among pedestrians in a city according to gender, time of day, and location. In this cross-sectional study, unsafe behaviours of 391 pedestrians in 17 locations were observed directly using recorded videos. The samples and locations were randomly selected. Two trained observers recorded behaviours using a 15-item checklist. Chi-square test, independent t-test, and ANOVA were used to examine the differences among independent variables. In addition; binary logistic regression was utilized to investigate the relationship between high-risk behaviours and independent variables. Each pedestrian exhibited an average of 4.8 (±2.2) high-risk behaviours. The most frequent unsafe behaviours included not looking left, right, and left [NLLRL] (84.7%), not using pedestrian bridges (63.5%), as well as crosswalks (60.9%). Pedestrians displayed more risky behaviours at roundabouts (P < 0.001). The category “unsafe crossing behaviour” put pedestrians at greater risk at roundabouts. The likelihood of not crossing at crosswalks, diagonal crossing, crossing between cars, and running was 5.14, 3.1, 3.6, and 2.23 times higher at roundabouts compared to intersections. The probability of pedestrians crossing the street along with others was 2.2 times higher in the evening than in the morning. Pedestrians in cities may be engaged in risky behaviours which endanger their lives. These behaviours should be explored for designing and implementing targeted interventional programs to reduce injuries and deaths among pedestrians.

Towards Safe Streets: The relationships between Physical Attributes of Streets and Perceptions of Pedestrian Safety in Kandy, Sri Lanka

Each year, over 1,000 pedestrians on Sri Lankan streets and more than 270,000 on world’s streets lose their lives and some are left with permanent disabilities. Compared to other road traffic fatalities and injuries, pedestrian accidents are seen as significantly high. Therefore, the pedestrian safety is a major issue on streets, and it has to be addressed in a serious manner. Safety being a basic need of every human being, it is essential that the built environment facilitates the safety needs. In here, Architecture and Urban Design would play a vital role in ensuring both physical as well as psychological safety of users. Cities, being the containers of large populations, naturally involve with the gathering of large numbers of people on streets, hence it is crucial to guarantee the safety of the pedestrians in cities. This paper explores the links between perception of safety and physical attributes of pedestrian spaces. It identifies the legitimate physical attribute combinations that help to ensure the safety within pedestrian space with the aim of mitigating and preventing the pedestrian accidents. This reviews the significant theories related to the field of architecture and urban design and the key attributes such as built form, planning and layout, ambience and functions used to facilitate the safety. The study engages with examining of variables of perceived safety and physical attributes of pedestrian areas, by appropriately using qualitative and quantitative research methods and, studying the city of Kandy as a case. The study concludes that the perception of safety of a pedestrian depends not merely on the physical aspects of pedestrian space, but also on the positive combinations of physical and psychological attributes.

Microclimate Environmental Assessment and Impact of Mountain City Pedestrian Streets in Summer

In mountainous cities, walking is an important form of transportation. The microclimate environment of pedestrian streets in summer affects the comfort of pedestrians, especially in hot summer cities. Besides, there are many height differences in mountainous city pedestrian streets, while existing researches of the thermal environment were mainly aimed at plain cities. We used typology to analyze different spatial patterns and tested microclimate of five kinds of streets in the Shanchengxiang of Chongqing. Then the universal thermal climate index (UTCI) was used to evaluate the thermal comfort of different spatial spaces. Firstly, the thermal environment of the mountain city street in summer is extremely uncomfortable and needs to be improved. Secondly, the sky view factor (SVF) has a great impact on the street thermal environment. Among all kinds of streets, the one-sided open B-N (SVF = 0.474) has the worst thermal environment, with an average UTCI of 44.7℃. However, the two-sided enclosed B2-B2 (SVF = 0.052) represents a better thermal environment, with an average UTCI of 35.5℃. The R2 value of 0.88 reflects that the linear correlation between UTCI and SVF is larger than that of H/W, whose R2 value is mere 0.04. Finally, different interfaces and enclosure forms have a great impact on space thermal comfort. This study quantifies the parameters that influence the design of pedestrian streets in mountain cities from the perspective of outdoor microclimate environmental assessment and provide a reference for the sustainable design of regional streets.

URBAN-i: From urban scenes to mapping slums, transport modes, and pedestrians in cities using deep learning and computer vision

In recent years, deep learning and computer vision have been applied to solve complex problems across many domains. In urban studies, these technologies have been instrumental in the development of smart cities and autonomous vehicles. However, a knowledge gap is present when it comes to informal urban regions in less developed countries. How can deep learning and artificial intelligence untangle the complexities of informality to advance urban modelling? In this paper, we introduce a framework for multipurpose realistic-dynamic urban modelling using deep convolutional neural networks. The purpose of the framework is twofold: (1) to sense and detect informality and slums in urban scenes from aerial and street-level images and (2) to detect pedestrian and transport modes. The model has been trained on images of urban scenes in cities across the globe. The framework shows strong validation performance in the identification of planned and unplanned regions, despite broad variations in the classified images. The algorithms of the URBAN-i model are coded in Python and the trained models can be applied to images of any urban setting, including informal settlements and slum regions.

Regularities of the Formation of the City Pedestrian Environment

The article critically examines the design and construction of pedestrian areas, considering the specifics of transport services in the largest cities of Russia, cultural heritage and scale of modern mobility of the population. It also emphasizes the need to solve the problem of formation of pedestrian streets, adjusting the relevance of the proposed small urban design, without forgetting the main purpose of the street - to ensure the movement of pedestrians. At the same time, it is asserted that the content of the street is a showcase of the actual functional purpose of objects that are placed in a certain place, often with along history, and not a contrived decoration, often out of place borrowed from foreign practice.&#x0D; In order to identify public opinion about thelatest trends in the organization of pedestrian traffic, a preliminary survey of residents, mainly with children or grandchildren, was conducted, and it showed the failure of the idea of carrying out yard functions on the street for our practice. At the same time, the return of the experience of the XII-XIII centuries, when vehicles were not allowed into the yards and two exits from residential buildings were created: one "front" and the other "black", overlooking the economic yard, helped to solve the modern problem of separation of space for pedestrians and transport.

Gyms Coverage in the City of Manizales and Villamaría Through Accessibility Analysis by the Pedestrian Network Infrastructure

Taking into account that Colombia has 1% of the established gymnasiums in the world and that Manizales and Villamaría own 45 of these establishments, it is sought to relate the reason for the high percentage of sedentary lifestyles in Colombia (60%) and determine which degree of coverage has the area of study in regard to these establishments. Through this research, we seek to evaluate the relationship between the spatial coverage of gyms in the city of Manizales and Villamaría and their relationship with sedentary lifestyles and the high dropout rates that occur in them. Through an analysis of integral accessibility, by means of the city's pedestrian network, the isochronous coverage curves of the gyms are constructed using the travel time of the pedestrian network nodes to the nearest gymnasium and the geo-statistical model Ordinary Kriging. Finally, inequality is found according to the socioeconomic stratification because low-income people have less coverage of these establishments.

Micrometeorological simulations to predict the impacts of heat mitigation strategies on pedestrian thermal comfort in a Los Angeles neighborhood

The urban heat island impacts the thermal comfort of pedestrians in cities. In this paper, the effects of four heat mitigation strategies on micrometeorology and the thermal comfort of pedestrians were simulated for a neighborhood in eastern Los Angeles County. The strategies investigated include solar reflective ‘cool roofs’, vegetative ‘green roofs’, solar reflective ‘cool pavements’, and increased street-level trees. A series of micrometeorological simulations for an extreme heat day were carried out assuming widespread adoption of each mitigation strategy. Comparing each simulation to the control simulation assuming current land cover for the neighborhood showed that additional street-trees and cool pavements reduced 1.5 m air temperature, while cool and green roofs mostly provided cooling at heights above pedestrian level. However, cool pavements increased reflected sunlight from the ground to pedestrians at a set of unshaded receptor locations. This reflected radiation intensified the mean radiant temperature and consequently increased physiological equivalent temperature (PET) by 2.2 °C during the day, reducing the thermal comfort of pedestrians. At another set of receptor locations that were on average 5 m from roadways and underneath preexisting tree cover, cool pavements caused significant reductions in surface air temperatures and small changes in mean radiant temperature during the day, leading to decreases in PET of 1.1 °C, and consequent improvements in thermal comfort. For improving thermal comfort of pedestrians during the afternoon in unshaded locations, adding street trees was found to be the most effective strategy. However, afternoon thermal comfort improvements in already shaded locations adjacent to streets were most significant for cool pavements. Green and cool roofs showed the lowest impact on the thermal comfort of pedestrians since they modify the energy balance at roof level, above the height of pedestrians.

Pedestrians Struck by Motor Vehicles Contribute to Disparities in Trauma Outcomes: The Case for Inner City Pedestrian Injury Prevention Programs

Background: Pedestrians struck by motor vehicles are known to have the highest mortality rates of any blunt trauma mechanism. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data demonstrate that Black and Hispanic patients suffer nearly twice the rate of death from this mechanism of trauma than do Whites. Whether this is due solely to a higher incidence of pedestrian injuries, or is also due to race-based differences in survival after pedestrian injury, is unknown. Similarly, the contribution of insurance status to the risk of mortality from pedestrian trauma is also unknown.

Steps ahead: making streets that work in Seattle, Washington

Seattle's new Comprehensive Plan outlines the development of existing and new pedestrian-oriented, moderate density and mixed-use urban villages. The Comprehensive Plan provides a vision and framework for collaborative, urban village-based neighbourhood planning, in which streets and street design are a high priority. This paper will explore the dimensions of collaboration developing around ‘Streets that Work’ as part of implementing the Comprehensive Plan. It will describe programmes and initiatives in Seattle that promote streets as valuable resources contributing to the health and vitality of the city. These include the authors' perspectives from within city engineering, planning, and design commission activities. Section 1 introduces Seattle's street planning and design milieu: the city's physical conditions and historical development, the formidable challenges and obstacles to pedestrian-friendly street design, and the current focus of debate around streets. Section 2 identifies the Comprehensive Plan as the context for making pedestrian improvements as part of realizing the urban village strategy. An assessment of the first 4 years' experience of the city Pedestrian Programme is the subject of Section 3. Section 4 explores the background and charge of the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board. Section 5 describes a design awards programme focusing on good street design. Section 6 explores a range of collaborative and complementary activities focused on realizing the pedestrian-orientated vision of the Comprehensive Plan's urban village strategy. The paper closes with thoughts on possible futures for Seattle's streets, and an epilogue added 5 months after the initial writing of this paper that summarizes the progress made towards making streets that work in Seattle.