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

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Agent-based modeling
• computer simulation
• pedestrian traffic simulation
• ant road planner
• pedestrian infrastructure
• crosswalks
• pedestrian safety

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4041861, reference number 4041861.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Russian Science Foundation with co-financing of Bank Saint Petersburg [Agreement #17-71-30029].

Notes on contributors

Egor Smirnov

Egor Smirnov is a researcher at the Urban Research Laboratory of Institute for Design and Urban Studies of ITMO University. His research is primarily focused on pedestrian behavior modeling and creating software that helps architects and urban planners make comfortable pedestrian infrastructure projects.

Sergei Dunaenko

Sergei Dunaenko is an engineer at the Urban Research Laboratory of Institute for Design and Urban Studies of ITMO University. His research interests are pedestrian safety and GIS programming.

Sergei Kudinov

Sergei Kudinov is an expert at the Urban Research Laboratory of Institute for Design and Urban Studies of ITMO University. His research interests are spatial analysis, urban planning, planning support systems, computing in urban research.