Calibrating a social force based model for simulating personal mobility vehicles and pedestrian mixed traffic

Personal mobility vehicles (PMVs), such as the Segway, have recently gained remarkable popularity as an alternative transport mode for short-distance trips in indoor and outdoor settings. Before allowing them on shared sidewalks, where the pedestrian and cyclist demand is high, interactions between PMV riders and other shared space users should be properly understood. Further, the designs of shared sidewalks and implementation policies should also be evaluated. Calibrated microscopic simulation tools could facilitate such purposes. This study aims to explore the applicability of a social force based microscopic simulation model, which was originally used to simulate pedestrian movements and interactions, for Segway and pedestrian mixed traffic. The parameters of the model are calibrated with data collected through controlled experiments under different Segway-pedestrian interaction scenarios. Lateral and longitudinal avoidance distances measured from trajectory data collected in a different controlled experiment was used to validate the model for a Segway rider avoiding a pedestrian. The findings of this study suggest that, with proper calibration, the social force model can potentially be used to simulate Segway-like PMVs and pedestrian mixed traffic.