Modeling Pedestrian and Motorist Interaction at Semi-Controlled Crosswalks: The Effects of a Change from One-Way to Two-Way Street Operation

Abstract

A large number of crosswalks are indicated by pavement markings and signs, but are not signal-controlled. In this paper, such a location is called “semi-controlled.” At locations where such a crosswalk has moderate amounts of pedestrian and vehicle traffic, pedestrians and motorists often engage in a non-verbal “negotiation” to determine who should proceed first. This paper describes the detailed analysis of video recordings of more than 3,400 pedestrian–motorist interactions at semi-controlled crosswalks. The study also took advantage of a conversion from one-way operation in spring 2017 to two-way operation in spring 2018 on the street chosen for data collection and analysis. This permitted before and after studies at the same location. The pedestrian models used mixed effects logistic regression and binary logistic regression to identify factors that influence the likelihood of a pedestrian crossing under specified conditions. The complementary motorist models used generalized ordered logistic regression to identify factors that impact a driver’s likelihood of decelerating, which was found to be a more useful factor than likelihood of yielding to pedestrian. The data showed that 56.5% of drivers slowed down or stopped for pedestrians on the one-way street. This value rose to 63.9% on the same street after it had been converted to two-way operation. Moreover, two-way operation eliminated the effects of the presence of other vehicles on driver behavior. Relationships were found that can lead to policies and control strategies designed to improve the operation of such a crosswalk.