Citation

Harpst TP, Popper RJ, Yu JC. Transp. Res. Rec. 1976; 605: 42-43.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1976, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine, through simulation, the effects of pedestrian movement on the flow of vehicles at signalized at-grade intersections. A computer simulation model was developed and validated to quantify the effects of pedestrian movements on vehicle delay, and to suggest possible criteria for the inclusion of a separate pedestrian phase in signal cycles as a method of reducing the delay to vehicles caused by pedestrians. Three measures of vehicle delay at intersections were computed by the model: the average length of the vehicle queue, the average time spent in the queue, and the number of vehicles passing through the intersections. These delay measures were considered functionally related to volumes of pedestrian traffic, pedestrian crossing behavior, volume of traffic, length of signal cycles, and percentage of turning vehicles.

RESULTS of the study indicated that: pedestrian-caused vehicle delays increased with an increase in the volumes of pedestrian or vehicle traffic. In every case in which volumes of pedestrian and vehicle traffic were held constant, the undesirable intersection operations showed greater vehicle delay than the ideal intersection operations. And, intersection operations experiencing delays could benefit from the inclusion of a pedestrian phase in the signal cycle by reducing delay to vehicles and promoting safe pedestrian movement.