Estimating Pedestrian Crossing Times at Scramble Crossings via Machine Learning and Agent-Based Modeling

Abstract

Scramble crosswalks differ from conventional crosswalks in their ability for pedestrians to cross diagonally. This research compares the average crossing times and investigates the walking behaviors that pedestrians adopt to produce the speediest times in the two crosswalk configurations. Identification of the most efficient set of walking behaviors is done through an agent-based model, whereas producing polynomials relating crossing times to the most prominent walking behaviors is done through regression algorithms in machine learning. With the combination of these two approaches, it is revealed that pedestrians must adopt a relaxed walking style to make each crosswalk configuration efficient. Additionally, between conventional and scramble crosswalks, the scramble configuration generally leads to lower crossing times, provided that there is sufficient pedestrian traffic. In all other cases, transitioning from a conventional to scramble design by the addition of diagonal routes leads to no significant changes – or even an increase – in crossing times