Modeling Pedestrian Walking and Crossing Characteristics at Nasiriya CBD

saad sarsam; alaa almusawi

doi:10.3759/ttea.v5i3.969

Abstract

To empower and support walking, comprehension of pedestrian and development of safe facilities for walking is essential. This work examines the factors which influence walking and crossing speed. The variations in walking speed of pedestrians are modeled and related to pedestrian characteristics such as gender, age group, and clothing traditions. On the other hand, the crossing speed of pedestrians was detected, and modeled. The counts of pedestrians were performed using video capture. The case study was performed in two streets located in a crowded commercial zone at the city center of Nasiriya. Data were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS Statistics 24 software and the final models for walking and crossing speed were selected. It has been found that pedestrians walk slower than other pedestrians do in the developed countries or in the region with walking speed of 1.144 m/sec, and crossing speed of 1.13 m/sec. Age, gender, and clothing traditions were found to significantly contribute to pedestrian speed. Pedestrians in the age range from 18-50 years were the fastest group of pedestrians and pedestrians over 50 years old were the slowest. Male pedestrians had significantly faster walking speeds than female pedestrians did. Pedestrians wearing western style (trousers) were found to be faster than those wearing Arabic style.