Journal
ACCIDENT ANALYSIS AND PREVENTION
Volume 194, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2023.107365
Keywords
Safe spaces; Pedestrian; E -bicyclist; Crosswalks; Drone data analysis; Traffic management
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study explores the safe spaces maintained by pedestrians and e-bicyclists when crossing streets. Using drone footage, the researchers found that e-bicyclists maintain semi-elliptical safe spaces while pedestrians maintain semi-circular safe spaces, with the sizes of these spaces increasing in proportion to relative speeds. The findings bridge an empirical gap in the existing literature and have practical implications for urban planning, traffic management, and the safety of vulnerable road users.
Despite numerous theoretical and empirical studies exploring the spatial needs of road users, a significant gap remains in validating these findings with extensive real-world data sets. This study presents the idea of safe spaces, outlining the buffer zones that both walkers and e-bicyclists maintain when crossing streets, while also taking safety and psychological well-being into consideration. We used drones to gather the study's trajectory data at three significant crossings in Xi'an, China. Multi-coordinate system transformation enabled us to determine the relative positions of individuals and moving objects within their visual domain. Relative position frequency heat maps were generated to explore safe distance demands in different directions. The safety space was then fitted using the least squares method. Our research demonstrates that whereas e-bicyclists maintain semi-elliptical safe spaces at street crossings, walkers maintain semi-circular safe spaces, and the sizes of these zones increase in direct proportion to their relative speeds. However, the safe space size oscillates within a defined range above a particular speed threshold. Notably, e-bicyclists require larger safety distances forward and are more sensitive to speed variations. Our knowledge of the dynamics of safe spaces for walkers and ebicyclists at street crossings is improved by this work, with emphasis on the role of speed and pedestrian numbers in shaping these spaces. The incorporation of real-world data from drone footage significantly strengthens the validity and reliability of our findings, bridging a crucial empirical gap in the existing literature. Additionally, this paper introduces a crowding coefficient based on safe space and proposes a new method using safe space to aid traffic conflict metrics PET, providing valuable insights for identifying crowd congestion levels and capturing traffic conflict events. The practical implications of our findings extend to urban planning, traffic management, and safety of vulnerable road users. Ultimately, this research contributes to the development of safer and more efficient urban environments for all road users.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available