Pedestrian crossing decision during flashing green-countdown signal for urban signalized intersection

Abstract During the signal-transition period for the signalized intersection, pedestrians will face a dilemma of whether to cross or wait. The study establishes a decision model of pedestrian-crossing based on risk-cost and time-utility during flashing green-countdown signal. First, the calculation methods of potential and direct risk in each direction of the intersection are proposed according to the traffic operation status. Then, analyze the relationship among the arrival time, remaining duration of flashing green signal and the actual crossing behavior, pedestrians are divided into adventurous, ordinary and conservative types respectively. Finally, introducing the time utility function, crossing decision models of three types pedestrians are established respectively based on comparing the risk cost and time utility. Take two signalized intersections as examples, parameters of decision models are calibrated through field investigation. Three types of models’ accuracy rates for the adventurous, ordinary and conservative pedestrians are 80%, 90% and 60% respectively, which denotes that the models can accurately predict the decision behavior of adventurous and ordinary pedestrians. Additionally, pedestrians are less sensitive to risk and more sensitive to time when they are faced with urgent time.