Pedestrians

Traffic Flow on Pedestrianized Streets

Daganzo, Carlos F.
Knoop, V. L.
2016

Giving pedestrians priority to cross a street enhances pedestrian life, especially if crosswalks are closely spaced. Explored here is the effect of this management decision on car traffic. Since queuing theory suggests that for a given pedestrian flux the closer the crosswalk spacing the lower the effect of pedestrians on cars, scenarios where pedestrians can cross anywhere should be best for both cars and pedestrians. This is the kind of pedestrianization studied. Analytic formulas are proposed for a pedestrianized street’s capacity, free-flow speed and macroscopic fundamental diagram. Of...

The Effect of Pedestrian Crossings on Traffic Flow

Knoop, V. L.
Daganzo, Carlos F.
2017

In urban areas and especially in inner cities, pedestrians crossing the road considerably influence the road traffic flow. For political (environmental) reasons, priority could be given to pedestrians. This paper studies to which extent crossing pedestrians influence the road traffic capacity. Several distances between pedestrian crossings are considered, and moreover, a non-constant intercrosswalk spacing is considered. The focus is on the distance between pedestrian crosswalks. Both effects are quantified. The results in this paper can be used to optimize the effects of giving...

The Effect of Crosswalks on Traffic Flow

Knoop,Victor L.
Daganzo, Carlos F.
2018

In urban areas and especially in inner cities, pedestrians crossing the road considerably influence the road traffic flow. For political reasons, priority could be given to pedestrians. A larger number of crossings reduces the pedestrian load per crossing and facilitates both the pedestrian flow and the car flow; the ultimate case is a “cross anywhere” scenario. Earlier work shows that the road capacity decreases with the square of the pedestrian crossing time, hence a short crossing time is desired. Crosswalks can ensure pedestrians cross orthogonally, and thus quickly, and can thereby...

Easy-to-compute index for identifying built environments that support walking

Schneider, RJ
Rodriguez, DA
Young, HM
2006

The variety and spatial co-variation of built environment attributes associated with non-automobile travel have resulted in the estimation of composite scores or indices summarizing these attributes. This paper builds on prior practical and research applications of these environmental scores or indices by proposing and testing a built environment index (BEI) calculated at the traffic analysis zone and that relies predominantly on widely available data. By computing the BEI using three different analytical methods used in prior research (principal components analysis, cluster analysis...

A Comparison of GPS and Travel Diaries to Characterize Walking Behavior

Cho, G
Rodriguez, DA
Clifton, KJ
Evenson, K
2008

While travel diaries are widely used to investigate walking behavior, the emergence of portable GPS units provides an innovative approach to characterizing walking behavior. This study compares the number and duration of daily walking trips reported in travel diaries with data extracted from a portable GPS unit and identified as the same walking trips. The study had two phases: (1) We used 35 person-days of travel data to determine the best algorithm for identifying walking trips from GPS data. The best algorithm had high Pearson (0.89) and Spearman correlation (0.85).

Defining Mixed-Use: Which Land Uses Promote Walking?

McConville, ME
Rodriguez, DA
Cho, G
Fleischhacker, S
Clifton, KJ
2010

Though researchers have explored the general impacts of mixed use development on physical activity, few have examined which specific land uses should be mixed. This study addresses this gap by examining the influence of the presence, intensity and diversity of land uses on utilitarian walking. Built environment data was related to utilitarian walking for individuals (n=251) in Montgomery County, Maryland. For a variety of land uses including banks, bus stops, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, libraries, rail stations, offices, parks, recreation centers, non-fast food restaurants...

How Neighborhood Design and Location Affect Three Types of Walking: Results from the Washington, DC Area

Cho, GH
Rodriguez, DA
2012

Understanding how the built environment on a neighborhood scale is associated with individuals' walking has been a common research objective in transportation and urban planning. In contrast to existing literature, this study is based on the assumption that a neighborhood's location defined at regional scale may be associated with walking and that this association may be separately identifiable from the influence of the neighborhood built environment on behaviors. The findings indicated that walking for commuting purposes was more strongly associated with neighborhood location than...

GIS Protocols

Forsyth, A
Koepp, J
Oakes, JM
Schmitz, KH
Zimmerman, J
Rodriguez, D
Song, Y
2006

To record the methods for environmental measurement used in the Twin Cities Walking Study so that the research team can replicate its own findings at a later date and different measurement staff share common definitions and processes. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are so multifaceted that seemingly simple decisions made at one time have ramifications for future work. Without a formal communications mechanism that makes such decisions explicit and organizes them, errors can be left unrecognized, thereby compounding measurement problems.

Seamless Travel: Measuring Bicycle and Pedestrian Activity in San Diego County and its Relationship to Land Use, Transportation, Safety, and Facility Type

Jones, Michael G.
Ryan, Sherry
Donlon, Jennifer
Ledbetter, Lauren
Ragland, David R.
Arnold, Lindsay
2010

This paper provides the data collection and research results for the Seamless Travel project. The Seamless Travel Project is a research project funded by Caltrans and managed by the University of California Traffic Safety Center, with David Ragland, PhD., as the Principal Investigator and Michael Jones as the Project Manager. The project is funded by Caltrans Division of Innovation and Research and is being conducted by the Traffic Safety Center of University of California Berkeley and Alta Planning + Design.Measuring bicycle and pedestrian activity is a key element to achieving the goals...

Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Evaluation in a SMART Corridor

Ragland, David R., PhD
O’Connor, Terri
2008

The San Pablo/I-80 corridor is a “SMART” transportation corridor that extends about 20 miles along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay. The corridor uses Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies to increase and enhance transportation mobility.The goal of the SMART Corridor Plan was to improve vehicle mobility throughout the corridor. Since the plan focused almost exclusively on vehicular traffic, achieving these goals has the potential to raise the risk of injury to pedestrians and bicyclists without thorough analysis of the overall effects of the SMART corridor...