This paper aims at developing a pedestrian Level of Service (LOS) model for the overall unsignalized mid-block crossings of road segments from the perspective of the pedestrian's perception of safety and convenience in Chinese mid-block crossing environment. Firstly, the potential primary factors influencing pedestrian LOS at unsignalized mid-block crosswalks were summarized from four respects: traffic conflicts, the distance between crosswalks, crossing facilities and delay. Secondly, data for the model were collected, including 948 participants real-time sense of safety and convenience when they crossing the 30 selected unsignalized mid-block crosswalks and the design and operational characteristics of the selected road segments in Chinese medium-sized urban area. The selected mid-block crosswalks were typical of those prevalent in the medium-sized urban areas of China, and the participants of questionnaire survey covered a broad cross section of Chinese population of pedestrians. Based on the survey data, Pearson Correlation analysis and step-wise regression analysis were carried out to develop pedestrian LOS model for the overall unsignalized mid-block crossings of road segments. The results revealed that the factors significantly influencing pedestrian LOS of the overall unsignalized mid-block crossings of road segments included: volume of two-way motor vehicle, the distance between marked mid-block crosswalks and the distance between unmarked crosswalks. A reliable, statistically calibrated pedestrian LOS model for the overall unsignalized mid-block crossings of road segments was developed (R2=0.80), suitable for application in the vast majority of Chinese medium-sized urban areas.
Abstract