Pedestrian Walking Speeds at Un-signalized Mid-block Crosswalks on Urban Street Segments

The 2010 Highway Capacity Manual (HCM 2010) presents a methodology for evaluating the performance of automobile traffic traveling along an urban street segment. One of the limitations of the methodology is that it does not account for delay incurred by vehicles due to mid-block pedestrian activity. Friction conditions such as pedestrian mid-block crossings increase segment running time, consequently lowering the segment`s travel speed and level of service. The delay incurred by an interrupted vehicle at mid-block is inversely related to the speed at which pedestrians walk while crossing at mid-block. To adequately estimate this delay, it is necessary to investigate the walking behavior of pedestrians at un-signalized mid-block crosswalks. The objective of this paper is to measure free-flow pedestrian walking speeds by age group at un-signalized mid-block crosswalks and perform statistical tests to compare differences between the walking speeds by age groups. Pedestrian walking speeds are recorded for 2904 pedestrians at un-signalized mid-block crosswalks. Results show teenagers walk at an average speed of 4.75ft./s, young adults walk at an average speed of 5.07 ft./s, middle age pedestrians walk at a speed of 4.76ft/s, older pedestrians walk at speed of 4.14ft/s, and elderly or physically disabled pedestrians walk at a speed of 3.42 ft./s. Overall, the data show pedestrians cross at mid-block crosswalks on urban street segment at a speed of 4.77ft./s. Results of the independent two-sample t-test show statistically significant difference between the walking speeds for all pairs of age groups with the exception of teenage and middle age pedestrians.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Standing Committee on Pedestrians.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Forde, Albert
  • Daniel, Janice
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Midblock crossings; Pedestrian movement; Pedestrians; Speed; Statistical analysis; Traffic delays; Unsignalized intersections; Urban areas; Walking
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01628789
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-05171
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 8 2016 12:01PM