Evaluation of speed characteristics and gap acceptance behavior of pedestrians of Asian Countries: A review

Abstract

Daily pedestrian travels involve navigating various locations, putting them at risk because they are vulnerable worldwide to road users. Road traffic accidents claim the lives of many pedestrians every year. Any roadway and traffic management design must consider the speed at which pedestrians cross or walk. To improve current operating policies and to provide logical safety assessments, it is essential to comprehend the characteristics of pedestrian speed. While crossing several vehicular lanes, pedestrians must look for vehicle gaps in each route according to the direction of traffic. However, existing studies often overlook the diversity in pedestrian behaviors. This paper seeks to summarize the pedestrian crossing speeds, delays, and gap acceptance behavior in Asian nations based on several investigations. Several notable pieces of information were also formulated through tabulation. By averaging the pedestrian speed of some Asian countries, it was found that pedestrians move at 1.23 m/s, and Indonesian pedestrians move slower than other countries’ pedestrians. Gap acceptance behavior depends on age, gender, group/individual, education status, day/night, vehicle type, traffic flow, waiting location etc. Such factors are also the influencing factors for pedestrian speed too. The study’s conclusions will help mitigate traffic safety issues by creating an effective intersection control system. Practitioners and policymakers can use the study results to develop effective management strategies to lessen collisions between pedestrians and vehicles in uncontrolled locations in urban areas.