MODELING AND SIMULATION OF PEDESTRIAN-MOTORIST INTERACTION AT UNCONTROLLED MID-BLOCK CROSSWALKS

The purpose of this research is to develop models to study pedestrian-motorist interaction at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks. Pedestrian gap acceptance characteristics, motorist yield to pedestrians and the dynamic interaction between the vehicular and pedestrian traffic flows are studied using field data. A robust simulator, Pedestrian Motorist Interaction Simulator (PMIS), was developed to study the interaction among drivers and pedestrians. PMIS provides a new evaluation tool for pedestrian safety study. This paper introduces probabilistic and binary-logit methods for modeling pedestrian-motorist interaction at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalk (UMC). PMIS simulates system dynamics using the following models: motorists yield (MOY), pedestrian gap acceptance (PGA) and system dynamic interaction (SDI) models. These models capture the traffic flow and pedestrian behaviors at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks. Application of the model is presented using a case study.