Conflict-Based Pedestrian Safety Scoring With All-Traffic Trajectory Data
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Authors
Weston, James
Issue Date
2024
Type
Dissertation
Language
Keywords
LiDAR , Near-miss Incidents , Pedestrian Safety , Risk Assessment , Scoring System , Vision Zero
Alternative Title
Abstract
The increasing urgency for pedestrian safety in urban areas underscores the necessity for advanced methodologies in traffic management, aligning with the Vision Zero initiative's goal to eradicate traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries. This dissertation introduces a novel model that utilizes all-traffic trajectory data obtained from LiDAR sensors to enhance pedestrian safety assessments at urban intersections. By leveraging a comprehensive set of variables—including near-miss incidents, pedestrian volumes, vehicular speeds, trajectory data, temporal patterns, lighting conditions, and crosswalk visibility—this model provides a holistic scoring methodology for pedestrian risk evaluation. Central to the model's efficacy is the application of the Post-Encroachment Time (PET), a critical temporal metric that measures the time interval between potentially conflicting trajectories, thus allowing for the anticipation and mitigation of collision risks. This innovative approach not only proposes a shift from reactive to proactive safety measures but also aims to establish a new approach to utilizing cutting-edge pedestrian data for urban safety enhancements. The findings from this study are poised to offer significant insights to urban planners, policymakers, and transportation engineers, aiming to cultivate safer pedestrian environments in growing urban landscapes. In the case studies of applying the proposed scoring system, twelve intersections were selected for data collection and pedestrian safety scoring with the proposed method. Many of the studied sites with high-risk scores also had larger numbers of crashes, showing a possible positive correlation could be discovered as more locations are completed. This research initiates the foundation of a conflict-based pedestrian safety scoring system, which can be extended to accommodate more impacting factors, such as time of day, existing pedestrian safety treatments, pedestrian behavior patterns, and land uses. Analysis of correlation between pedestrian risks and those impacting factors with the innovative trajectory data can also initiate new research topics based on what is introduced in this dissertation.