Studying Pedestrian’s Unmarked Midblock Crossing Behavior on a Multilane Road When Interacting With Autonomous Vehicles Using Virtual Reality

This dissertation focuses on the challenge of pedestrian interaction with autonomous vehicles (AVs) at unmarked midblock locations where the right-of-way is unspecified. A virtual reality (VR) simulation was developed to replicate an urban unmarked midblock environment where pedestrians cross a four-lane arterial roadway and interact with AVs. One research goal is to investigate the impact of roadway centerline features (undivided, two-way left-turn lane, and median) and AV operational schemes portrayed through on-vehicle signals (no signal, yellow negotiating indication, and yellow/blue negotiating/no-yield indications) on pedestrian crossing behavior. Results demonstrate that both roadway centerline design features and AV operations and signaling show significant impacts on pedestrians\u27 unmarked midblock crossing behavior, including the waiting time at the curb, waiting time in the middle of the road, and the total crossing time. Whereas, only the roadway centerline design features significantly impact the walking time, and only the AV operations and signaling significantly impact the accepted gap. Participants in the undivided centerline scene spent longer time waiting at the curb and walking on the road. Also, pedestrians are more likely to display risky behavior and cross in front of AVs indicating blue signals with non-yielding behavior in the presence of a median centerline scene. The inclusion of a yellow signal, which indicates the detection of pedestrians and signifies that the AVs will negotiate with them, resulted in a significant reduction in pedestrian waiting time both at the curb and in the middle of the road, when compared to AVs without a signal. Interaction effects between roadway centerline design features and AV operations and signaling are significant only for waiting time in the middle of the road. It is also found that older pedestrians tend to wait longer at the curb and are less likely to cross in front of AVs showing a blue signal with non-yielding behavior. Another research goal is to investigate how this VR experience change pedestrians’ perception of AVs. Results demonstrated that both pedestrians’ overall attitude toward AVs and trust in the effectiveness of AV systems significantly improved after the VR experience. It is also found that the more pedestrians trust the yellow signals, the more likely they are to improve their perception of AVs. Further, pedestrians who exhibit more aggressive crossing behavior are less likely to change their perception towards AVs as compared to those pedestrians who display rule-conforming crossing behaviors. Also, if the experiment made pedestrians feel motion sick, they were less likely to experience increased trust in the AV system\u27s effectiveness

Comprehensive Safety Analysis of Vulnerable Road User Involved Motor Vehicle Crashes

This dissertation explores, identifies, and evaluates a multitude of factors significantly affecting motor vehicle crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists, commonly defined as vulnerable road users (VRUs). The methodologies are guided by the concept of safe behavior of different parties that are primary responsible for a crash, either a pedestrian, a bicyclist or a driver, pertaining to roadway design, traffic conditions, land use and built environment variables; and the findings are beneficial for recommending targeted and effective safety interventions. The topic is motivated by the fact that human factors contribute to over ninety percent of the crashes, especially the ones involving VRUs. Studying the effect of road users’ behavior, their responses to the dynamics of traveling environment, and compliance rate to traffic rules is instrumental to precisely measure and evaluate how each of the investigated variables changes the crash risk. To achieve this goal, an extensive database is established based on data collected from sources such as the linework from topologically integrated geographic encoding and referencing, Google maps, motor vehicle accident reports, Wisconsin Information System for Local Roads, and Smart Location Dataset from Environmental Protection Agency. The crosscutting datasets represent various aspects of motorist and non-motorists travel decisions and behaviors, as well as their safety status. With this comprehensive database, intrinsic relationships between pedestrian-vehicle crashes and a broad range of socioeconomic and demographic factors, land use and built environment, crime rate and traffic violations, road design, traffic control, and pedestrian-oriented design features are identified, analyzed, and evaluated. The comprehensive safety analysis begins with the structural equation model (SEM) that is employed to discover possible underlying factor structure connecting exogenous variables and crashes involving pedestrians. Informed by the SEM output, the analysis continues with the development of crash count models and responsible party choice models to respectively address factors relating to roles in a crash by pedestrians and drivers. As a result, factors contributing to crashes where a pedestrian is responsible, a driver is responsible, or both parties are responsible can be specified, categorized, and quantified. Moreover, targeted and appropriate safety countermeasures can be designed, recommended, and prioritized by engineers, planners, or enforcement agencies to jointly create a pedestrian-friendly environment. The second aspect of the analysis is to specify the crash party at-fault, which provides evidence about whether pedestrians, bicyclists or drivers are more likely to be involved in severe crashes and to identify the contributing factors that affect the fault of a specific road user group. An extensive investigation of the available information regarding the crash (i.e., issued citations, actions/circumstances that may have played a role in the crash occurrence, and crash scenario completed by the police officer) are considered. The goal is to recognize and measure the factors affecting a specific party at-fault. This provides information that is vital for proactive crisis management: to decrease and to prevent future crashes. As a part of the result, a guideline is proposed to assign the party at-fault through crash data fields and narratives. Statistical methods such as the extreme gradient boosting (XGboost) decision tree and the multinomial logit (MNL) model are used. Appealing conclusions have been found and suggestions are made for law enforcement, education, and roadway management to enhance the safety countermeasures. The third aspect is to evaluate the enhancements of crash report form for its effectiveness of reporting VRU involved motor vehicle crashes. One of the State of Wisconsin projects aiming to develop crash report forms was to redesign the old MV4000 crash report form into the new DT4000 crash report form. The modification was applied from January 1, 2017, statewide. The reason behind this switch is to resolve some matters with the old MV4000 crash report form, including insufficient reporting in roadway-related data fields, lack of data fields describing driver distraction, intersection type, no specification of the exact traffic barrier, insufficient information regarding safety equipment usage by motorists and non-motorists, unclear information about the crash location, and inadequate evidence concerning non-motorists actions, circumstances and condition prior to the crash. Hence, the new DT4000 crash form modified some existing data fields incorporated new crash elements and more detailed attributes. The modified and new data fields, their associated attribute values have been thoroughly studied and the effectiveness of improved data collection in terms of a better understanding of factors associated with and contributing to VRU crashes has been comprehensively evaluated. The evaluation has confirmed that the DT4000 crash form provided more specific, details, and useful about the crash circumstances

Establishing Procedures and Guidelines for Pedestrian Treatments at Uncontrolled Locations

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users. The risks to pedestrians crossing at uncontrolled locations are much higher than at signalized intersections. There has been an increasing trend in pedestrian deaths during the past decade. Specifically, pedestrian fatality as percent of total fatalities indicates an increasing trend in a ten-year period from 2005 to 2014. Several research projects funded by both federal and state transportation agencies have attempted to identify effective strategies for improving pedestrian safety within their jurisdictions. However, very little research was conducted on pedestrian safety at uncontrolled locations in Illinois. The objectives of the project were to identify the best practices of approving pedestrian crossings and pedestrian-crossing treatments at uncontrolled locations and to develop procedures and guidelines to be used by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and local agencies. To achieve the research goal, the team conducted a comprehensive literature review of related studies and existing guidelines, a survey and interview of Illinois transportation engineers, statistical analysis of Illinois pedestrian-crash data from 2010 to 2014, and a field review of selected high-crash corridors (HCC) in Illinois. This study identified several common issues associated with the high-pedestrian-crash-prone roads, e.g., speeding, poor lighting, noncompliance with posted signage, inadequate or missing signage, or lack of conspicuity. Several geometric features were also proven to be related to pedestrian crashes; for instance, long crossing distances, insufficient sight distance, and inappropriate placement of bus stops and parking were proved to affect pedestrian safety. In addition, pedestrian-crossing treatments were classified into five categories in the study, and their effectiveness and suitable conditions were assessed and identified. Based on the research findings, a guidebook was compiled with a comprehensive discussion of strategies and treatments to enhance pedestrian safety at uncontrolled locations. The target audiences for this guidebook are transportation professionals, highway designers, traffic engineers, law enforcement officers, and safety specialists who may be involved in efforts to reduce pedestrian crashes at uncontrolled locations.IDOT-R27-167Ope

Pedestrian Observation and Data Collection Curriculum Guide

This is a final report, NITC-ED-999, from the NITC program of TREC at Portland State University, and can be found online at: https://nitc.trec.pdx.edu/research/project/999 The project brief associated with this research can be found at: https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25833This guidebook provides a comprehensive set of class exercises suitable for students in courses related to travel behavior, traffic safety, urban planning and design, community health, or civil engineering. Exercises include activities developed through this project as well as an extensive set of educational materials drawn from online resources. The exercises developed as part of this project focus on pedestrians. They include elements of both traditional traffic counts and behavioral components, the latter of which are often lacking from current data collections efforts. By encouraging students to consider behavioral interactions of roadway users, these exercises can provide students with field experience that collects data that underlie behavioral traffic theory and agent-based traffic models. The materials are organized to provide helpful guidance to instructors and provide insights gathered through the pilot testing of classroom materials. Activities drawn from existing resources provide a comprehensive set of educational materials that address different facets of pedestrian and bicycle planning. The educational curricula and resources outlined in this guide allow instructors with little or no experience to integrate pedestrian-related curriculum into their teaching. The guide may also prove useful for organizations interested in pedestrian and bicycle planning and provide additional resources for experienced instructors. Included curricula are aimed at undergraduate or graduate university students, but can be easily adaptable to high school students or community college classes interested in exploring these issues. Specific outcomes include the following: • Readings, curriculum, data collections tools, and general research design that instructors can adapt to their needs, while standardizing the data collection method. This can enrich classroom learning and facilitate fieldwork experience. • The data collected from the exercise may provide a benefit to local agencies. Local jurisdictions are often interested in partnering with local university classes on data collection, but time constraints, particularly in the quarter system, can make planning and execution of projects time-prohibitive.This project was funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) under grant number 999. Additional resources in the guide are public documents courtesy of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center (PBIC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), Ryan Snyder at the UCLA Department of Urban Planning, and Krista Nordback of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (UNC-HSRC)

Deschutes County : Transportation system plan

276 pp. Bookmarks supplied by UO. Ordinance adopted August 26, 1998. Executive Summary published September 30, 2003. Captured January 9, 2006.The Deschutes County Transportation System Plan addresses transportation needs throughout the County over the next twenty years (1996-2016). The County transportation system provides connections between Deschutes County and adjacent counties, as well as between the urban and rural areas within the County. The transportation network involves many different modes, including auto, bike, pedestrian, rail and transit. [From the Plan