Analysis of conflict factors between pedestrians and right-turning vehicles at signalized intersections

Due to the fact that there is no protected signal phase for right turns at most signalized intersections, the conflict between pedestrians and right-turning vehicles is one of the most common conflict types for pedestrians. A pedestrian safety analysis of the common right-turn mode at four-phase signalized intersections is presented. Relative risk is used as a measure of the effect of behaviors. The analysis mainly includes five pedestrian factors that affect the conflict process between pedestrians and right-turning vehicles. Pedestrians tend to have a higher risk of being involved in conflicts in the following six situations: crossing with others, running over the crossing, entering the intersection, being near the exit lane, crossing in the middle or at the end of a green light when the right-turn lane is shared, crossing at the beginning of a green light or red period when the right-turn lane is exclusive. It is easier for pedestrians to get priority when crossing the street in the following situations: running over a crossing, entering the intersection, being near the entrance lane, and not using the crosswalk. However, pedestrians are more inclined to yield to right-turning vehicles when pedestrians are crossing in the middle of the green light time. Some measures to alleviate the conflict are put forward according to the conclusion. Video observations also indicate that a clear pedestrian waiting area must be marked for both pedestrian safety and right-turning vehicle efficiency at major flat intersections, particularly when the arms cover the lateral dividing strips.

Evacuation of pedestrians from a hall by game strategy update

In this paper, a cellular automaton model considering game strategy update is proposed to study the pedestrian evac- uation in a hall. Pedestrians are classified into two categories, i.e., cooperators and defectors, and they walk to an exit according to their own strategy change. The conflicts that two or three pedestrians try to occupy the same site at the same time are investigated in the Game theory model. Based on it, the relationship between the pedestrian flow rate and the evacuation time as well as the variation of cooperative proportion against evacuation time is investigated from the different initial cooperative proportions under the influence of noise. The critical value of the noise is found when there is a small number of defectors in the initial time. Moreover, the influences of the initial cooperative proportion and strength of noise on evacuation are discussed. The results show that the lower the initial cooperative proportion as well as the bigger the strength of noise, the longer the time it takes for evacuation.

Simulation-based optimization of inner layout of a theater considering the effect of pedestrians

We propose an extended cellular automaton model based on the floor field. The floor field can be changed accordingly in the presence of pedestrians. Furthermore, the effects of pedestrians with different speeds are distinguished, i.e., still pedestrians result in more increment of the floor field than moving ones. The improved floor field reflects impact of pedestrians as movable obstacles on evacuation process. The presented model was calibrated by comparing with previous studies. It is shown that this model provides a better description of crowd evacuation both qualitatively and quantitatively.Then we investigated crowd evacuation from a middle-size theater. Four possible designs of aisles in the theater are studied and one of them is the actual design in reality. Numerical simulation shows that the actual design of the theater is reasonable.Then we optimize the position of the side exit in order to reduce the evacuation time. It is shown that the utilization of the two exits at bottom is less than that of the side exits. When the position of the side exit is shifted upwards by about 1.6 m,it is found that the evacuation time reaches its minimum.

A novel method for tracking pedestrians from real-time video

This novel method of Pedestrian Tracking using Support Vector (PTSV) proposed for a video surveillance instrument combines the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier into an optic-flow based tracker. The traditional method using optical flow tracks objects by minimizing an intensity difference function between successive frames, while PTSV tracks objects by maximizing the SVM classification score. As the SVM classifier for object and non-object is pre-trained, there is need only to classify an image block as object or non-ob-ject without having to compare the pixel region of the tracked object in the previous frame. To account for large motions between successive frames we build pyramids from the support vectors and use a coarse-to-fine scan in the classification stage. To accelerate the training of SVM, a Sequential Minimal Optimization Method (SMO) is adopted. The results of using a kernel-PTSV for pedestrian tracking from real time video are shown at the end. Comparative experimental results showed that PTSV improves the reliability of tracking compared to that of traditional tracking method using optical flow.

Tracking Pedestrians Under Occlusion in Parking Space

Many traffic accidents occur in parking lots.One of the serious safety risks is vehicle-pedestrian conflict.Moreover,with the increasing development of automatic driving and parking technology,parking safety has received significant attention from vehicle safety analysts.However,pedestrian protection in parking lots still faces many challenges.For example,the physical structure of a parking lot may be complex,and dead corners would occur when the vehicle density is high.These lead to pedestrians’sudden appearance in the vehicle’s path from an unexpected position,resulting in collision accidents in the parking lot.We advocate that besides vehicular sensing data,high-precision digital map of the parking lot,pedestrians’smart device’s sensing data,and attribute information of pedestrians can be used to detect the position of pedestrians in the parking lot.However,this subject has not been studied and explored in existing studies.Tofill this void,this paper proposes a pedestrian tracking framework integrating multiple information sources to provide pedestrian position and status information for vehicles and protect pedestrians in parking spaces.We also evaluate the proposed method through real-world experiments.The experimental results show that the proposed framework has its advantage in pedestrian attribute information extraction and positioning accuracy.It can also be used for pedestrian tracking in parking spaces.

Reviving the Historic Street through Pedestriansation: In the Case of Haileselassie Street, Piazza, Addis Ababa

Pedestrianisation is seen as a necessity in many cities of the world.Streets are main representatives of the city image,which have its reflection of its home country.Haileselassie Street in Piazza is shaped after the short-term confrontations of the Italians that profoundly affected the entire downtown.The prideful victory of Ethiopia is an important landmark of the urban fabric in Piazza,Addis Ababa.The Haileselassie Street lacks its vista and approach it deserves.Therefore,this paper introduces the scheme of pedestrianisation in Haileselassie Street by reclaiming the street for the people in order to remember the history.The pertinent questions this article seeks to address are:the factors that aim to transform the street into a‘pedestrian’street only?Which aspects of the pedestrianisation should be considered to improve the quality of the Haileselassie Street?Moreover,this article recommends the strategic proposal to improve the quality of the pedestrians in urban space.

Estimation of Probability of Swarming Pedestrians' Violation at Signalized Intersections in Developing Cities

We made an on-site investigation about pedestrian violation of traffic signals at a signalized intersection in Xi＇an, Shaanxi province, China. Based on it, we studied the impact of pedestrian＇s waiting time on violation decision and the impact of the number of pedestrians in colony on the probability of swarming pedestrians＇ violation. The result revealed that the probability of pedestrian violation rose with the waiting time for the pedestrians＇ green signal. Then we developed a Monte Carlo model for simulating mixed vehicles and pedestrians and used the on-site investigation data to validate the model. When traffic volume is fight, the error between the simulated values and the measured ones is 2.67%. When traffic volume is heavy, the error is 3.38%.

Self-Perception and General Perception of the Safety Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Pedestrians, Bicyclists, and People with Ambulatory Disability

For autonomous vehicles (AVs) to receive general acceptance, society must have a positive perception about their safety impact on vulnerable road users. Using data from a statewide random-digit-dialing telephone survey of 1001 adults, this paper examines how New Jersey residents perceive the safety impact of AVs on pedestrians, bicyclists, and people with ambulatory disability. It uses a combination of confirmatory factor analysis and ordered probit models. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to create latent variables on socioeconomic status and built environment. Three ordered probit models are used to examine people’s perception of AV safety impact on each of the three population groups. The models also examine how frequent walkers, bicyclists, and people with ambulatory disability perceive their own safety as well as the safety of the other two groups. All three models examine the effect of familiarity with AV, gender, age, income, education, race, ethnicity, number of vehicles in household, political party affiliation, as well as built environment and socioeconomic status of the municipalities where the survey respondents live. The analysis showed that men, people with familiarity with the AV concept, Democrats, bicyclists, and people with high household income generally have a positive perception about the safety impact of AVs. While frequent walkers are ambivalent about their own safety as pedestrians, bicyclists have a positive perception about their own safety and the safety of pedestrians, whereas people with ambulatory disability have a strong negative perception about their own safety. The models did not show statistically significant effects of socioeconomic status or built environment of municipalities on AV safety perception.

Designing Right-Turn Vehicle Box as a Supplemental Treatment to Eliminate Conflicts with Pedestrians and Bicycles

Field observations illustrated that, right-turn vehicles stopped at various positions when proceeding within the right-turn lanes, while some of them trespassed on the crosswalks with multiple stops. In this case, pedestrians and bikes (ped/bike) are encountered unsmooth and hazardous crossings when right-turn vehicles encroaching their lanes. Meanwhile, this also causes conflicts between right-turn and through vehicles at the crossing street. To better protect ped/bike at crossings with right-turn vehicles, this paper proposes a concept of “right-turn vehicle box” (RTVB) as a supplemental treatment within right-turn lanes. Sight distance, geometric conditions, and behaviors of vehicles and ped/bike are key factors to consider so as to set up the criteria and to design the suitable treatment. A case study was conducted at an intersection pair in Houston, USA to shape the idea of RTVB, together with driving simulator tests under relevant scenarios. The preliminary crosscheck examination shows that the right-turn vehicle box could possibly provide ped/ bike with smoother and safer crossings. In the interim, the safety and efficiency of right-turn operations were also improved. To further validate the effects, implementation studies should be conducted before the RTVB can make its debut in practice. Future works will focus on the complete warrants and design details of this treatment. Moreover, the concept of “vehicle box” could also be transplanted to other places where turning movement(s) needs assistance or improvements.

Pedestrian Serviceability Index Including Pedestrians on Vehicle-Path

In Indian mixed traffic, a common scenario is when motorized vehicles, non-motorized vehicles including pedestrians use the same road space. In such conditions, ifPLOS （pedestrian level of service） is measured using conventional methods, i.e., considering pedestrians walking on footpath only; leads to unrealistic results as most of the time pedestrians are seen walking on the path dedicated for vehicles, i.e., vehicle-path. The decision making behavior of pedestrians regarding walking on footpath or on vehicle-path is influenced by the quality of footpath as well as the characteristics of traffic on vehicle-path and the presence of vendors in the street. Hardly any research carried out on measuring pedestrians＇ serviceability on road considering pedestrians walking on vehicle-path. This study attempts to estimate the effect of various parameters such as intensity of vehicular traffic on the vehicle-path, presence of street vendors on the vehicle-path, etc., on pedestrians＇ decision of walking on footpath or on vehicle-path based on data collected at two locations in New Delhi, India, by using various statistical methods, especially binary logistic regression. One of the locations is an urban two-lane undivided road with footpath on both sides, a part of National Highway-2, another one is a four-lane divided road with footpath on both sides which is a typical arterial road. It has been found that vendors play a significant role in pedestrians＇ decision making regarding walking on footpath or on vehicle-path. Study proposes a model to measure pedestrians＇ serviceability on a road where pedestrians may be walking on the vehicle-path even in the presence of footpath.

A Study on the Methods for Estimating the Distribution of Pedestrians in an Underground Mall by Use of Watch Cameras

This paper shows the method of estimating spatiotemporal distribution of pedestrians by using watch cameras. We estimate the distribution without tracking technology, with pedestrian＇s privacy protected and in Umeda underground mall. Lately spatiotemporal distribution of pedestrians has being increasingly important in the field of urban planning, disaster prevention planning, marketing and so on. Although many researchers have tried to capture the information of location as dealing with some sensors, some problems still remain, such as the investment of sensors, the restriction of the number of people who has the device they are able to capture. From such background, we develop an original labelling algorithm and estimate the spatiotemporal distribution of pedestrians and the information of the passing time and the direction of pedestrians from sequential images of a watch camera.

Recognition of occluded pedestrians from the driver's perspective for extending sight distance and ensuring driving safety at signal-free intersections

Urban intersections without traffic signals are prone to accidents involving motor vehicles and pedestrians.Utilizing computer vision technology to detect pedestrians crossing the street can effectively mitigate the occurrence of such accidents.Faced with the complex issue of pedestrian occlusion at signal-free intersections,this paper proposes a target detection model called Head feature And ENMS fusion Residual connection For CNN(HAERC).Specifically,the model includes a head feature module that detects occluded pedestrians by integrating their head features with the overall target.Additionally,to address the misselection caused by overlapping candidate boxes in two-stage target detection models,an Extended Non-Maximum Suppression classifier(ENMS)with expanded IoU thresholds is proposed.Finally,leveraging the CityPersons dataset and categorizing it into four classes based on occlusion levels(heavy,reasonable,partial,bare),the HAERC model is experimented on these classes and compared with baseline models.Experimental results demonstrate that HAERC achieves superior False Positives Per Image(FPPI)values of 46.64%,9.59%,9.43%,and 6.78%respectively for the four classes,outperforming all baseline models.The study concludes that the HAERC model effectively identifies occluded pedestrians in the complex environment of urban intersections without traffic signals,thereby enhancing safety for long-range driving at such intersections.

Temporal and spatial compliance behaviour of pedestrians under the influence of time pressure at signalized intersections:A pedestrian simulator study

Pedestrian safety is at high stakes due to the non-compliance practices of pedestrians at signalized intersections.Additionally,when pedestrians are hurrying,they deliberately engage in such unsafe behaviour.Therefore,the purpose of this study was to understand how time pressure(i.e.,feeling of hurry or saving time)affected pedestrians'decisions to follow traffic rules at signalized junctions.To achieve the study objectives,a pedestrian simulator setup was used to collect the crossing behaviour of forty participants at a four-legged signalized intersection.Non-compliance,one of the riskiest pedestrian behaviours,was examined with respect to three different forms,comprising dangerous temporal non-compliance(D-TNC),non-dangerous temporal non-compliance(ND-TNC),and spatial non-compliance(SNC)behaviour under two distinct conditions:baseline(i.e.,no time pressure)and time pressure conditions.The effects of demographics,usual walking features,and time pressure on D-TNC and ND-TNC were investigated using a multinomial regression model,while SNC behaviour was investigated using a binary regression model.It was interesting to note that the majority of the factors related to pedestrians’usual walking behaviour had an impact on all kinds of non-compliance behaviours.Importantly,the results also showcased that time pressure had a contrasting impact on D-TNC and ND-TNC behaviour whereas SNC behaviour increased under time pressure.Additionally,the varying impacts of D-TNC,ND-TNC,and SNC were also reflected in the occurrence of the crashes,which were probably triggered by discrepancies in the influence of time pressure on non-compliance behaviours.These findings highlight the need for technical solutions,educational outreach,and efficient enforcement practices to reduce pedestrians'non-compliant behaviour.

Entropy-based guidance and predictive modelling of pedestrians’visual attention in urban environment

Selective visual attention determines what pedestrians notice and ignore in urban environment.If consistency exists between different individuals’visual attention,designers can modify design by underlining mechanisms to better meet user needs.However,the mechanism of pedestrians’visual attention remains poorly understood,and it is challenging to forecast which position will attract pedestrians more in urban environment.To address this gap,we employed 360°video and immersive virtual reality to simulate walking scenarios and record eye movement in 138 participants.Our findings reveal a remarkable consistency in fixation distribution across individuals,exceeding both chance and orientation bias.One driver of this consistency emerges as a strategy of information maximization,with participants tending to fixate areas of higher local entropy.Additionally,we built the first eye movement dataset for panorama videos of diverse urban walking scenes,and developed a predictive model to forecast pedestrians’visual attention by supervised deep learning.The predictive model aids designers in better understanding how pedestrians will visually interact with the urban environment during the design phase.

Burden of traffic accidents among pedestrians of Fars province, southern Iran; estimate of years of life lost in a sample of Iranian population from 2009 to 2013

Purpose： Traffic injuries are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Pedestrians have been considered as a high-risk group among road users, especially in middle- or low-income communities. This study attempted to determine the burden of pedestrians＇ fatalities in Fars, the southern province of Iran using years of life lost （YLL） approach. Methods： The data used in this study were retrieved from Fars Forensic Medicine Organization database on pedestrian traffic accidents. The YLL from 2009 to 2013 was estimated using the method presented by World Health organization. Some epidemiological characteristics of pedestrians＇ fatalities were analyzed by SPSS. Results： Although YLL among 1000 male pedestrians decreased from 2.5 in 2009 to 1.5 in 2013, it increased from 0.9 to 2.1 among 1000 females during the same period. Higher proportion of death was found in female, illiterate, and married pedestrians {p 〈 0.001 ）. In addition, mortality was higher in pedestrians living the cities, during daytime, at home, and in hospitals （p 〈 0.001 ）. Conclusion： Consistent with the global trends, burden of pedestrian accidents in Fats was also excep- tionally high. Considering the national and cultural aspects of different countries, improving the safety of pedestrians demands a multi-dimensional approach with interventional factors concerning policies, rules, pedestrians, motor vehicles and environmental conditions taken into consideration.

Hit-and-runs more common with pedestrians lying on the road: Analysis of a nationwide database in Japan

Purpose:To determine the trends with fatally or otherwise injured pedestrians lying on the road and the relationship to hit-and-run incidents in Japan.Methods:We extracted data for 2012e2016 from the records of the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis,Japan,a nationwide traffic accident database.All the injured and fatally injured pedestrians were selected.We examined the levels of pedestrian injury,vehicle speed immediately before the collision,whether or not the pedestrian was lying on the road,and hit-and-run incidents.Chi-square test was employed to make a statistical comparison between the two groups.Results:The database contained data on 286,383 pedestrian casualties and 7256 fatalities;8.3%of fatalities(602 persons)and 0.6%of casualties(1827 persons)involved pedestrians lying on the road.The rates of fatalities and severe injuries were significantly higher for pedestrians who were lying on the road than for those who were not.Hit-and-run incidents were evident in 4.0%of casualties and 7.3%of fatalities.The rate of hit-and-run cases was also significantly higher among pedestrians who were lying on the road.Among fatally injured pedestrians not lying on the road,the rates with speeds of30 km/h did not differ significantly between hit-and-run and other cases.However,when the pedestrians were lying on the road,the rate was significantly increased in hit-and-run cases.Conclusion:This is the first report to focus on pedestrians lying on the road and being involved in hitand-run incidents.In addition to preventing hit-and-run incidents,prevention of pedestrians lying on the road could also decrease fatalities.

Crowd evacuation of pairs of pedestrians

The crowd evacuation of pairs of pedestrians(i.e.pairs consisting of a parent and a child)is numerically investigated.Here,it is assumed that all pedestrians have their own partners,and move randomly inside the bounded domain of the right-hand room as an initial state.All pedestrians start their evacuations after they contact their partners.The evacuations are completed by the transfer of all the pairs from the right-hand room to the left-hand room through an exit.A frozen swarm tends to appear in the right-hand room as the total number of pedestrians increases.The frozen swarm moves without changing its form,unless it is dissolved by a strong collision with a pair of pedestrians that comes back from the left-hand room by accident.Finally,the evacuation speed also depends on the area of the Escape Zone,whereas an obstacle placed in front of an exit also changes the speed of the evacuation in accordance with the type of motion of the children.

Delays for Both Pedestrians Classified and Vehicles at a Signalized Crosswalk

Delays of both pedestrians,who are classified according to whether complying with traffic law,and vehicles at a signalized crosswalk are analyzed in this paper.The truncated Adams' model is applied to generate the probability and mean of delay of pedestrians non-complying with traffic law.Using the section-based traffic queuing-theory and the stochastic decomposition property of M/G/1vacation system with exhaustive service,the mean delay of vehicles is formulated.A multi-objective optimization model simultaneously minimizing the delays of pedestrians and vehicles during a signal period is proposed.The effects,which several model parameters have on the delays and the optimal solution of the model,are illustrated by numerical examples.

Using multi-agent simulation to predict natural crossing points for pedestrians and choose locations for mid-block crosswalks

When arranging the pedestrian infrastructure,one of the most important components that make a tangible contribution to the safety of pedestrians is to organize the safe road crossing.In cities,pedestrians often cross a road in the wrong place due to established routes or inadequate location of crosswalks.Accidents with the participation of pedestrians who crossed the road neglecting the traffic rules,make up a significant part of the total amount of road accidents.In this paper,we propose a method that allows us,on the basis of the results of a computer simulation of pedestrian traffic,to obtain predicted routes for road crossing and to indicate optimal locations for crosswalks that take into account established pedestrian routes and increase their safety.The work describes an extension for the existing AntRoadPlanner simulation algorithm,which searches for and clusters points where pedestrians cross the roadway and suggests locations for new crosswalks.This method was tested on the basis of a comparative simulation of several territories before and after its application,as well as on the basis of a field study of the territories.The developed algorithm can also be used to search for other potentially dangerous places for pedestrians on plans of districts,for example,crossings in places with limited visibility.

Hybrid cooperative intersection management for connected automated vehicles and pedestrians

Connected Automated Vehicles(CAVs)have drawn much attention in recent years.High reliable automatic technologies can help CAVs to follow given trajectories well.However,safety and efficiency are hard to be ensured since the interactions between CAVs and pedestrians are complex problems.Thus,this study focuses on cooperative intersection management for CAVs and pedestrians.To avoid the effects of uncertainty about pedestrian behaviors,an indirect way is to use pedestrians’signal lights to guide the movements of pedestrians,and such lights with communication devices can share information with CAVs to make decisions together.In time domains,a general conflict-free rule is established depending on the positions of CAVs and crosswalks.Geometric analysis with coordinate calculation is used to accurately determine the feasible vehicle trajectories and the reasonable periods for signal lights turning green.Four control strategies for the same conditions are compared in simulation experiments,and their performances are analyzed.We demonstrate that the proposed cooperative strategy not only balances the benefits of vehicles and pedestrians but also improves the traffic efficiency at the intersection.