Identifying Priority Crosswalk Locations in Urban Road Networks

Abstract

Pedestrian crosswalks are not always placed at optimal locations, and some crosswalks cause walkers to detour from their shortest routes. Some walkers run the risk of jaywalking to avoid detours, and it becomes the cause of fatalities and serious injuries. However, it is not easy to find systematic procedures to identify preferred locations of pedestrian crossings at the network level from the pedestrian viewpoint. This study proposes a method for identifying high priority crosswalk locations in urban road networks by assessing measures such as total travel costs and network connectivity. The total travel costs were calculated using conventional shortest path algorithms and network connectivity was measured by employing a modified Dial's algorithm (1971). Application of the proposed method to a test network showed that total travel cost was a suitable metric to identify appropriate crosswalk locations and connectivity clarified priority among candidate crosswalks. The proposed method is useful to help plan better pedestrian environments in urban road networks by providing crossing locations in the viewpoint of pedestrians.