A model of pedestrians’ intended waiting times for street crossings at signalized intersections

Abstract

For the purposes of both traffic-light control and the design of roadway layouts, it is important to understand pedestrian street-crossing behavior because it is not only crucial for improving pedestrian safety but also helps to optimize vehicle flow. This paper explores the mechanism of pedestrian street crossings during the red-man phase of traffic light signals and proposes a model for pedestrians' waiting times at signalized intersections. We start from a simplified scenario for a particular pedestrian under specific traffic conditions. Then we take into account the interaction between vehicles and pedestrians via statistical unconditioning. We show that this in general leads to a U-shaped distribution of the pedestrians' intended waiting time. This U-shaped distribution characterizes the nature of pedestrian street-crossing behavior, showing that in general there are a large proportion of pedestrians who cross the street immediately after arriving at the crossing point, and a large proportion of pedestrians who are willing to wait for the entire red-man phase. The U-shaped distribution is shown to reduce to a J-shaped or Lshaped distribution for certain traffic scenarios. The proposed statistical model was applied to analyze real field data.

A bilevel model for multivariate risk analysis of pedestrians’ crossing behavior at signalized intersections

“…We first introduce the notation used in this paper. Then we provide a brief summary for the univariate model proposed in Li (2013), and finally we extend the univariate model to multivariate risk analysis.…”

“…We first introduce the notation that describes traffic flow, pedestrians and traffic signal setting respectively. Li (2013) argues that, when vehicular speed is capped by a relatively low speed limit in urban areas (especially in the city/town centers), the most important traffic variable that affects pedestrians' street-crossing behavior is vehicle time headway because it characterizes the gap between two consecutive vehicles and hence provides a measure of opportunity for a pedestrian to cross the street during the red-man phase. In this paper, we use to denote the random variable of vehicle time headway and the lower case ℎ to denote its realization.…”

“…The longer they wait, the less likely that the risk-averse pedestrians will cross the street during the red-man phase. Li (2013) has recently proposed a U-shaped distributional model to characterize pedestrians' intended waiting time during the red-man phase of traffic light signals at signalized intersections. This model was developed based on the interaction between pedestrians and vehicles, and hence it helps understand the mechanism of pedestrians' street-crossing behavior.…”

“…First, we note that there is a real need to extend the univariate approach in Li (2013) to a multivariate method. The U-shaped distribution in Li (2013) …”

Investigating the Applicability of Upstream Detection Strategy at Pedestrian Signalised Crossings

“…For example, pedestrian crossings are key facilities in busy urban streets to help pedestrians cross traffic streets safely and efficiently. In the urban areas of most large cities, there is intensive interaction between pedestrian and motorised traffic around the activity of street crossings [3,4]. A pedestrian crossing can take many forms, ranging from 'informal' facilities, such as pedestrian 'refuges' in the middle of single carriageway roads, to 'formal' facilities such as the Zebra crossing and various forms of signalised pedestrian crossing.…”