Modeling vehicle-pedestrian interactions outside of crosswalks

Abstract Pedestrian and driver behaviors as well as their interactions, are essential in planning, designing and operating highway facilities. Pedestrian crossing outside of a marked or unmarked crosswalk (i.e. jaywalking), is one of those pedestrian behaviors that may highly affect safety and operations. Unlike permissible crossings at crosswalks, jaywalking events are not often anticipated by drivers, which may result in less driver reaction time and different vehicle operation dynamics. It is important to understand pedestrian crossing behavior outside of crosswalks, as well as driver yielding behavior towards them. To date, limited quantitative and behavioral research has been conducted to investigate this interaction or simulate it microscopically. This paper aims to explore both pedestrian jaywalking behavior (gap acceptance and speeds) and the corresponding driver reactions (yielding behavior) for modeling the vehicle–pedestrian interactions (VPI) outside the crosswalks in a micro-simulation environment. The study also quantifies the differences between vehicle–jaywalker and vehicle-permissible crossing. An observational study and an instrumented vehicle study were conducted on the campus of the University of Florida to collect data from pedestrian and driver perspectives, respectively. Crossing speed, yield acceptance and delay of jaywalking crossings and permissible crossings were observed in the study and these attributed can be used for replicating pedestrian operations in simulators. Moreover, behaviors of driver approaching jaywalkers versus pedestrians crossing at designated crosswalks were compared on the basis of yield rates, and vehicle speed profiles. Vehicle yield dynamics were analyzed to model the driver reactions towards jaywalkers. Lastly, it was found that the locations of jaywalking events are highly concentrated and influenced by the crossing environment, such as pedestrian and vehicular volume, bus stops presence and crossing distance. This paper establishes several quantitative relationships describing interactions between pedestrians crossing outside of crosswalks and approaching drivers, which provide the basis and assumptions for modeling such interactions in a micro-simulation environment for traffic operational analyses.