Citation

Yang Z, Liu P, Xu X, Xu C. Transp. Res. Rec. 2016; 2586: 59-71.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.3141/2586-07

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study presents a multiobjective evaluation method to estimate the performance of various midblock crosswalk treatments on urban streets. The considered objectives included traffic operation, traffic safety, environmental impacts, and costs. Data were collected at 16 midblock crosswalks in the Nanjing area in China. Vissim simulation models were developed and calibrated with field data to evaluate the operational and environmental impacts of various midblock crosswalk treatments. For the impact of various treatments on traffic operation, the total control delay to vehicles on the major streets and pedestrians were estimated. For the impact on traffic safety, the frequency of traffic conflicts was calculated. For the impact on the environment, vehicle emissions and fuel consumption were quantified. The TOPSIS entropy evaluation method was then used to rank the performance of various treatments of crosswalks considering multiple performance measures. Compared with the life-cycle cost analysis method that quantifies the benefits and costs using monetized expressions to establish a common unit, the TOPSIS method presented does not require the well-developed economic theories of valuation. It was found that by combining multiple objectives in decision making, one may obtain different results with regard to the optimum treatments of crosswalks. The research results can be directly used by traffic engineers to select crosswalk treatments given traffic flow conditions and geometric design characteristics. The framework implemented in the study can also be used to estimate the impacts of other traffic projects considering multiobjective evaluation.

Language: en