ESTIMATION OF LOS AT PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS AT MIDBLOCKS

Abstract

Traffic accidents involving pedestrians have become a major safety problem all over the world, particularly in developing countries. Most of these accidents are occurring at pedestrian crossing streets. Estimation of pedestrian Level of Service (LOS) is the most common approach to assess quality of operations of pedestrian facilities. A Level of Service methodology for pedestrians crossing streets at mid block locations were developed based on. pedestrian perception. The methodology can provide a measure of effectiveness that indicates pedestrians' perceived quality of service in crossing roads at mid block locations. Pedestrian waiting time data was collected from 17 locations in five cities of India. Videography and pedestrian interview survey are employed for collecting the pedestrian waiting time and perception respectively. The (LOS) based on cluster analysis of waiting, time data is developed. K-means algorithm is used to estimate cluster centres. Silhouette,: value is used for the validation and selection of clusters. The developed LOS based on cluster analysis is further modified with pedestrian's perception. Traffic intensity corresponding to various waiting time conditions were shown to pedestrians through photographs and their perception is used to model LOS. Six levels of service from A to F are proposed for crossing facilities based on waiting time pedestrian perception under Indian conditions. Finally, the modified LOS is used to define the LOS condition prevailing at different locations.