PEDESTRIAN CROSSING BEHAVIOUR IN MIXED TRAFFIC

Road crossing behaviour of pedestrians is a widely researched topic. Researchers have modelled pedestrian time gap acceptance and waiting times mostly as controlled experiments and in uniform traffic conditions. In developing countries, urban traffic comprises of motorized and non-motorized vehicles plying at widely varying speeds. Modelling pedestrian crossing behaviour in such mixed traffic conditions and also when pedestrian's mind is diverted using a mobile phone is difficult and limited research has been done in this area. In this work pedestrian crossing behaviour is studied in mixed traffic conditions for one-way traffic in the city of Patna, India using a video camera. It was observed that time gap acceptance decreases when the person is using a mobile phone while crossing. Also, pedestrians tend to cross in meandering trajectory when on mobile phone or when encountering non motorized low speed vehicles.