Background Pedestrian infrastructure is pivotal for advancing the movement of nonmotorized road users and plays a transformative role in transitioning toward sustainable transportation, especially in ...rural territories influenced by urban dynamics and interconnected by daily commuter flows. Both walking and cycling stand out as paramount sustainable transport means, offering substantial health and environmental benefits, including reduced noise and air pollution. Multiple factors, such as convenience, safety, accessibility, service cost, flexibility, and the quality of pedestrian pathways, shape individuals' propensity to walk. Notably, in peri-urban contexts, the cost of service becomes a significant determinant, as a notable proportion of the population earns minimal wages or faces unemployment. Objective This study sought to examine the current state of pedestrian walkways within Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas, through which the accessibility, availability, and quality of these facilities were assessed. The study has suggested possible solutions to address the challenges faced by pedestrians. Methods By conducting semi-structured interviews and leveraging ArcGIS mapping utilities, this research has delineated the existing scenario and offered an initial redesign tailored to pedestrian requirements. Results The data have starkly revealed pervasive inadequacies in the existing pedestrian infrastructure. The functionality and safety of current amenities have been manifestly undermined by these shortcomings. The continuing use of these dilapidated facilities may pose alarming threats not only to pedestrians, but also to other road users.
•60% of the pedestrians found it fairly safe to use the marked crossings under study.•A great proportion of drivers (36%) failed to yield to pedestrians at marked crossings.•Speed and densities ...predict pedestrians’ and drivers’ behaviour.•Pedestrians being distracted while crossing leads to conflict situations.
The aim of this work is to describe pedestrian-driver encounters, communication, and decision strategies at marked but unsignalised crossings in urban areas in the Czech Republic and the ways in which the parties involved experience and handle these encounters. A mixed-methods design was used, consisting of focus groups with pedestrians and drivers regarding their subjective views of the situations, on-site observations, camera recordings, speed measurements, the measurement of car and pedestrian densities, and brief on-site interviews with pedestrians. In close correspondence with the literature, our study revealed that the most relevant predictors of pedestrians’ and drivers’ behaviour at crossings were the densities of car traffic and pedestrian flows and car speed. The factors which influenced pedestrians’ wait/go behaviour were: car speed, the distance of the car from the crossing, traffic density, whether there were cars approaching from both directions, various signs given by the driver (eye contact, waving a hand, flashing their lights), and the presence of other pedestrians. The factors influencing drivers’ yield/go behaviour were: speed, traffic density, the number of pedestrians waiting to cross, and pedestrians being distracted. A great proportion of drivers (36%) failed to yield to pedestrians at marked crossings. The probability of conflict situations increased with cars travelling at a higher speed, higher traffic density, and pedestrians being distracted by a different activity while crossing. The findings of this study can add to the existing literature by helping to provide an understanding of the perception of encounter situations by the parties involved and the motives lying behind certain aspects of behaviour associated with these encounters. This seems necessary in order to develop suggestions for improvements. For instance, the infrastructure near pedestrian crossings should be designed in such a way as to take proper account of pedestrians’ needs to feel safe and comfortable, as well as ensuring their objective safety. Thus, improvements should include measures aimed at reducing the speed of approaching vehicles (e.g. humps, speed cushions, elevated crossings, early yield bars, and narrow lanes), as this would enhance yielding by motor vehicles. Other measures that specifically rely on the subjective perception of different situations by the parties involved include the education and training of drivers, the aim of which is to promote their understanding and appreciation of pedestrians’ needs and motives.
Pedestrian fatalities constitute a fourth of all road deaths in Ghana. Footbridges are recent countermeasures deployed to improve pedestrians' safety in Ghana. The main objectives of the research ...were to: (i) identify the lapses on the footbridges and their effects on pedestrian crossing behavior in the vicinity of the edifices, (ii) explore the reasons why pedestrians do not use the footbridges and, (iii) evaluate the road safety impact of the footbridges on pedestrian safety. Naturalistic observations and peak-hour pedestrian counts on the footbridges and within the vicinities of the facilities were carried out. Focus group discussions were also conducted to understand pedestrian crossing and walking behavior at the footbridges. Lastly, pedestrian casualties were analyzed for 3 years before and after the bridge construction. There were 165 pedestrian casualties along the highway section. Of these, 29% were fatal while 40% of the victims were hospitalized for at least 24-hours. Many pedestrians still cross the multilane-highway at grade. The main reasons for non-use of the bridges include heights, lengths, security, poor illumination and hawking. Pedestrian injuries have significantly declined during the after period compared with the before period. Findings have implications for road safety education and siting of future footbridges.
•A methodology to extract pedestrians’ sudden speed change events is proposed.•20–50% of crossing pedestrians have at least one sudden speed change event.•Speed change events often occur in the ...approach of conflict area with vehicular traffic.•Significantly high number of speed change events are observed during PFG interval.•Necessary speed to finish crossing before red has impact on the speed change events.
Pedestrian-vehicle conflicts are one of the most important safety concerns at signalized intersections especially in urban areas. Conflicting vehicles and pedestrians select their maneuvers by predicting the other user behavior. Sudden behavioral changes of pedestrians such as sudden speed change (acceleration or deceleration) cannot be predicted by drivers, which can lead to safety hazards especially if these sudden behavioral changes occur near conflict areas. In this study, continuous pedestrian speed profiles were analyzed at signalized crosswalks to investigate the existence of such behavioral changes. A methodology is proposed to identify significant sudden changes of pedestrian speeds. The locations and timings of these sudden speed change events were analyzed, and the influencing factors such as crosswalk geometry and signal timing were studies and evaluated. Five signalized crosswalks at three intersections in Nagoya City were videotaped for analysis. Individual pedestrian maneuvers were extracted with image processing software. Empirical analysis showed that sudden acceleration events were observed at the entrance points to the pedestrian-vehicle conflict area, which highlights the significance of these events to pedestrian-vehicle conflict analysis. A multinomial logit model was developed to estimate the probability of a pedestrian making a sudden speed change as a function of different influencing factors. The results implied that the entering speed, necessary speed to finish crossing before the onset of the pedestrian signal red phase, and crosswalk length have a significant impact on speed change choices. This paper presents important suggestions to understanding pedestrian maneuvers in detail from the viewpoint of safety.
•This study investigated the pedestrians illegal crossing behavior before, during, and after crossing.•Over one-third of all pedestrians crossed in the presence of a vehicle on the road.•Most of the ...pedestrians crossed the road during their first attempt and used the shortest path to cross.•Crossing time was affected by gender, age, phone use, type of clothing, crossing in a group, and presence of a vehicle.•The presence of a vehicle, as well as other pedestrians and hindrances, altered the illegal crossing behavior of pedestrians.
Pedestrians’ illegal mid-block crossing increases the chances of a crash compared to crossing at marked or signalized crosswalks. Therefore, it is necessary to have an accurate understanding of this type of behavior to be able to prevent it. This paper presents the results from a comprehensive study undertaken to gain insight into illegal pedestrian crossing behavior on a high-speed six-lane divided arterial road that runs through a high-density urban area. Pedestrian behavior data were collected during the different stages of illegal crossing including before crossing, during crossing, and after crossing to determine the effect of hindrances, vehicles, and other pedestrians on the crossing behavior. The results showed that the illegal crossing behavior is mostly undertaken by male pedestrians. Over one-third of all pedestrians crossed in the presence of a vehicle on the road. Out of this group, almost one-third crossed using a rolling gap. The waiting time before crossing was affected by the group size, crossing point (curb or median), and the presence of other pedestrians on the opposite side of the road. Most of the pedestrians crossed the road during their first attempt and used the shortest path to cross. The crossing time was affected by gender, age, mobile phone use, type of clothing, crossing in a group, crossing point, path of crossing, and presence of a vehicle. The decision to cross was based on the presence of vehicles in the middle or far lanes for most pedestrians. Overall, the presence of a vehicle, as well as other pedestrians and hindrances, altered the illegal crossing behavior of pedestrians.
Introduction: This study presents the prediction of driver yielding compliance and pedestrian tendencies to press pushbuttons at signalized mid-block Danish offset crosswalks. Method: It applies ...Bayesian Networks (BNs) analysis, which is basically a graphical non-functional form model, on observational survey data collected from five signalized crosswalks in Las Vegas, Nevada. The BNs structures were learnt from the data by the application of several score functions. By considering prediction accuracy and the Area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves, the BN learnt using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) score resulted as the best network structure, compared to the ones learnt using K2 and the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). The BIC score-based structure was then used for parameter learning and probabilistic inference. Results: Results show that, when considering an individual scenario, the highest predicted yielding compliance (81%) is attained when pedestrians arrive at the crosswalk while the flashes are active, whereas the lowest predicted yielding compliance (23.4%) is observed when the pedestrians cross between the yield line and advanced pedestrian crosswalk sign. On the other hand, crossing within marked stripes, approaching the crosswalk from the near side of the pushbutton pole, inactive flashing lights, and being the first to arrive at the crosswalk result in relatively high-predicted probabilities of pedestrians pressing pushbutton. Furthermore, with a combination of scenarios, the maximum achievable predicted yielding probability is 87.5%, while that of pressing the button was 96.3%. Practical applications: Traffic engineers and planners may use these findings to improve the safety of crosswalk users.
•This study applied Bayesian Networks (BNs) to study drivers and pedestrians’ behaviors at signalized mid-block crosswalks.•The BNs’ structures and parameters were learnt from the data collected from five crosswalks located in Las Vegas, Nevada.•The BN learnt using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) score resulted as the best network structure.•The highest predicted yielding compliance (81%) was when pedestrians arrive at the crosswalk while the flashes are active.•Crossing zone, approach side, and inactive flashes resulted in high predicted probabilities of pedestrians pushing the button.
Abstract
This article is devoted to the study of the accuracy of MobileNet V1 and MobileNet V2 models when recognizing pedestrians at different times of the year, with changing distance and position. ...According to the test results, the pros and cons of the models were identified, as well as their capabilities and dependencies. Models were compared directly to each other. All studies were performed on an NVIDIA Jetson Nano microcomputer.
Pedestrians comprise a major component of the transport system and their incorporation in the design of future cities is of vital importance. The development of C-ITS systems requires real-time ...information concerned with the accurate position and kinematics of pedestrians. Therefore, it necessitates the existence of reliable pedestrian simulation models. The objective of this study is the exploration of the existing tools considering modeling techniques and data collection technologies for pedestrian simulation under normal conditions and their interrelations within the framework of pedestrian simulation towards the design and implementation of future simulation approaches. To achieve this, an overview of the main microscopic modeling techniques and data collection methods i.e., emerging positioning technologies is presented, with their potentials and limitations being demonstrated through the existing state-of-the-art. Pedestrian simulation is then approached employing two core elements: conceptual and operational factors. The challenges that these factors entail considering modeling techniques and positioning technologies are elaborated. Last, simulation performance is discussed and future prospects relevant to research needs considering both pedestrian modeling techniques and emerging positioning technologies are proposed.
Objective: More and more pedestrians use mobile phones in their daily traffic activities by the roadside or even when crossing the street. The objective of this research is to examine pedestrians' ...traffic and safety behavior while texting or web-surfing, when crossing signalized intersections.
Methods: In order to compare the behavior of distracted and non-distracted pedestrians, an experimental process through video recording was carried out in real road conditions, in three signalized intersections in the center of Athens in Greece. Demographic and behavioral characteristics were observed, including use of mobile device. For the statistical analysis, two multiple linear regression models were developed to investigate the association of pedestrians' speed and distraction caused by mobile phone use. Additionally, binary logistic regression models were developed in order to determine the influence of distraction on pedestrians' safety characteristics and more specifically on near misses with oncoming vehicles.
Results: Observers recorded crossing behaviors for 2,280 pedestrians and noticed that nearly one-fifth (16.6%) of them performed a phone-distracting activity while crossing. Distractions included texting or web-surfing (6.3%), listening to music (5.4%) and using a handheld phone (4.9%). Τhis research indicated that distraction caused by texting or web-surfing had a negative impact on pedestrians' main traffic and safety characteristics. Results pointed out that in high pedestrian traffic, distracted pedestrians who were texting or web-surfing on their mobile phone present lower speed than non-distracted pedestrians, regardless of their age, as they may be not aware of traffic conditions due to distraction and therefore, they have higher crossing times. Furthermore, their probability of a near miss increases with increasing pedestrian volume as the more pedestrians who occupy the pedestrian crossing the more difficult is for them to observe carefully the rest traffic.
Conclusions: Mobile phones are integral to contemporary daily life and their use and penetration is increasing rapidly as well. For this reason, it is crucial to investigate the impacts of distracted walking on pedestrians' traffic and safety behavior. Various measures and strategies should be implemented and further research should be conducted as texting and web-surfing distraction is associated with a rather high risk.
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