Modeling pedestrian crossing activities in an urban environment using microscopic traffic simulation

Comparative results of field observations and the microscopic modeling of the same vehicle and pedestrian activity are presented. A primary observation is that, for the intersection studied, only a small percentage of pedestrians appear to comply with the pedestrian signal indication, with the vast majority of pedestrians exhibiting gap-seeking behavior, crossing when a gap is available, regardless of the signal indication. This results in potentially significant over-estimates of wait time if high pedestrian signal compliance rates are assumed. A second notable observation is that the pedestrian crossing behavior is strongly related to the cross-street traffic queue clearance time and subsequent traffic flow. Capturing this interaction significantly enhances the models' ability to reflect the observed field performance.