Study on the Pedestrian Arrival and Release Characteristics and its Application in Signalized Crosswalk

Signalized crosswalks are complex and critical pedestrian facilities. To protect the safety of pedestrians and improve the crosswalk capacity, this paper applies the shock wave theory to analyses the characteristics of pedestrian arrival and release, and considers different related factors (i.e., crosswalk width, length, and signal timing). Based on the findings of this study, pedestrian release model is established. Combined with the survey data, this paper proposes the constraint conditions of protecting the safety of pedestrians, and calibrates the lateral distance between pedestrians and its limit value. Then this paper analyzes the parameters sensitivity and calculates pedestrian numbers of the model. Finally, this paper puts forward the applications of the model in two aspects: the optimal crosswalk width and crosswalk capacity that ensure the crossing pedestrian safety in specific geometric conditions. In the practical application, the proposed method in this study can be used as a reference for crosswalk width design.