Pedestrian Support in Intelligent Transportation Systems: Challenges, Solutions and Open issues

The increased urbanization and the drive for realizing smart cities have motivated extensive research and development in the realm of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in order to deal with the increased traffic intensity. Yet, the scope of ITS is not limited to vehicles, as pedestrians are special road users that play an important role in affecting traffic, road infrastructure, and vehicle design. Pedestrians are deemed to be the most vulnerable road users and are the major sufferers of road-incident fatalities and injuries each year. Therefore, quite a few studies have focused on pedestrian's support and safety. On the other hand, due to imperceptible behavior, a pedestrian may also negatively impact traffic efficiency and can thus be viewed as an obstacle for fully realizing the advantages of ITS. In addition, more issues related to pedestrians have been raised with the emergence of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). In this paper, we discuss different issues related to pedestrians as road users. Furthermore, we provide a comprehensive survey and classification of the different solutions of pedestrian protection. Finally, we highlight technical gaps and point out possible future research directions.