The paradox of pedestrian's risk aversion.

The paradox of pedestrian's risk aversion. Accid Anal Prev. 2020 May 13;142:105518 Authors: Hacohen S, Shoval S, Shvalb N Abstract Traffic accidents are becoming a significant cause for unnatural deaths around the world, with more than 1.25 million fatalities in road accidents each year, and over 20 million people severely injured. A large portion of accidents that result in fatalities involve interaction between vehicles and pedestrians. In the literature, researchers speculate on a wide range of reasons for these figures. This paper focuses on the relationship between pedestrians' urgency to cross a busy road and the resulting level of risk for an accident. The probability for an accident is determined by a prediction model for a collision between drivers and pedestrians at congested conflict spots. The model is based on a motion planner called the Probabilistic Navigation Function (PNF), initially designed for robot navigation in dynamic cluttered and uncertain environments. The model predicts pedestrians' trajectories when crossing a busy road in a sub-meter accuracy, based on the risk they are willing to take (a reflection of the level of urgency to cross the road). The paper describes an unexpected and surprising pedestrian behavior in simple road crossings scenarios. When the model is given a loose risk boundary (that reflects a high level of pedestrian urgency to cross), the resulting trajectory exposes the pedestrian to a lo...
Source: Accident; Analysis and Prevention. - Category: Accident Prevention Authors: Tags: Accid Anal Prev Source Type: research