Pedestrian–vehicular interactions in a mixed street environment

ABSTRACT

We develop a methodology to analyze pedestrian-vehicular interactions in urban streets in a mixed traffic environment, and then apply it to Bliss Street, an urban street in Beirut. Data on the street was collected before and after a crosswalk was installed using videography, radar speed guns, and manual counts. A pedestrian gap acceptance model indicated that installing the crosswalk did not have any significant effect on the pedestrians’ sensitivity to waiting time, gap size, or the speed of the approaching vehicles. However, it caused reductions in the speed of approaching vehicles which in turn encouraged pedestrians to accept shorter gaps. A micro-simulation model indicated that the crosswalk would reduce the speed on the street slightly, with significant reductions observed if more pedestrians who currently cross at midblock locations shift to use the crosswalk. The results of this study can be used to test interventions for enhancing pedestrian safety in Lebanon, and are generalizable to similar contexts in developing countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Pedestrian safety
• crosswalk
• pedestrian–vehicular interactions
• pedestrian gap-acceptance
• micro-simulation

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the University Research Board at the American University of Beirut. We are grateful to the lab assistants who helped us in data collection, the pedestrians who participated in this research and filled out the questionnaire, and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the American University of Beirut [University Research Board Grant].