Analysis and Modeling of Pedestrian Crossing Behavior During the Pedestrian Flashing Green Interval

Pedestrian-vehicle conflicts are considered one of the most common safety problems at signalized intersections. In Japan, the pedestrian flashing green (PFG) is considered a safe time interval for pedestrians at crosswalks to finish crossing before conflicting vehicle streams are released. In most common phasing schemes, pedestrians have the right-of-way along with left-turning vehicles (in left-hand traffic). By law, pedestrians should not enter a crosswalk during the PFG. However, many of them rush into crosswalks without necessarily heeding approaching turning vehicles, which could increase the probability of severe conflicts. The objective of this paper is to analyze and model the probabilistic behavior of pedestrians after the onset of the PFG, which contains the pedestrians´ decision of whether to give up crossing, as well as the pedestrian speed distribution. Empirical data analysis showed that longer crosswalks lead to significantly higher pedestrian stop probabilities. Furthermore, there is a significant difference between the pedestrians´ speeds in the first and second halves of crosswalks. The results of a Monte Carlo simulation showed that the estimated models closely represent the overall stochastic behavior of the pedestrians from the onset of the PFG until the completion of crossing.