Using multi-agent simulation to predict natural crossing points for pedestrians and choose locations for mid-block crosswalks

Abstract

When arranging the pedestrian infrastructure, one of the most important components that make a tangible contribution to the safety of pedestrians is to organize the safe road crossing. In cities, pedestrians often cross a road in the wrong place due to established routes or inadequate location of crosswalks. Accidents with the participation of pedestrians who crossed the road neglecting the traffic rules, make up a significant part of the total amount of road accidents. In this paper, we propose a method that allows us, on the basis of the results of a computer simulation of pedestrian traffic, to obtain predicted routes for road crossing and to indicate optimal locations for crosswalks that take into account established pedestrian routes and increase their safety. The work describes an extension for the existing AntRoadPlanner simulation algorithm, which searches for and clusters points where pedestrians cross the roadway and suggests locations for new crosswalks. This method was tested on the basis of a comparative simulation of several territories before and after its application, as well as on the basis of a field study of the territories. The developed algorithm can also be used to search for other potentially dangerous places for pedestrians on plans of districts, for example, crossings in places with limited visibility.

Keywords

• agent-based modeling
• computer simulation
• pedestrian traffic simulation
• ant road planner
• pedestrian infrastructure
• crosswalks
• pedestrian safety