Pedestrian Behavior Modeling in ITS Environment
Pedestrian safety has always been a hard factor to achieve in both rural and urban areas. The extremely varied conducts of both drivers and pedestrians makes it difficult to determine and implement the best infrastructure to provide safety. High rates of accidents involving drivers and pedestrians at crosswalks are the motivation of this research. The crosswalk in front of Grainger Engineering Library, in Springfield Avenue, was the scenario selected for the study. Videotapes of pedestrians crossing the street during peak hours are taken to analyze their behavior, and obtain data such as crossing time, gap acceptance and drivers tendency to yield. Secondary data such as gender and age of pedestrians and drivers, type of vehicle, and number of pedestrians are also taken to study its influence in the behavior. The collected data is inputted into MS Excel and SAS software to obtain a regression that best describes the behavior considering the variables obtained. The analysis of this behavior will assist in the development of the best Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies that can be implemented to improve safety among pedestrians.
School:
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Department:
Civil Engineering
Research Advisor:
Rahim Benekohal
Department of Research Advisor:
Transportation Engineering
Year of Publication:
2002