Cellular automata (CA) simulation of the interaction of vehicle flows and pedestrian crossings on urban low-grade uncontrolled roads

• Rules governing pedestrian street crossings on uncontrolled roads are analyzed.
• CA model for the interaction of vehicle flows and pedestrian crossings is proposed.
• Volume and travel time of vehicles, wait time of pedestrians are simulated.
• Temporal and spatial characteristics of vehicle and pedestrian flows are found.

This paper discusses the interaction of vehicle flows and pedestrian crossings on uncontrolled low-grade roads or branch roads without separating barriers in cities where pedestrians may cross randomly from any location on both sides of the road. The rules governing pedestrian street crossings are analyzed, and a cellular automata (CA) model to simulate the interaction of vehicle flows and pedestrian crossings is proposed. The influence of the interaction of vehicle flows and pedestrian crossings on the volume and travel time of the vehicle flow and the average wait time for pedestrians to cross is investigated through simulations. The main results of the simulation are as follows: (1) The vehicle flow volume decreases because of interruption from pedestrian crossings, but a small number of pedestrian crossings do not cause a significant delay to vehicles. (2) If there are many pedestrian crossings, slow vehicles will have little chance to accelerate, causing travel time to increase and the vehicle flow volume to decrease. (3) The average wait time for pedestrians to cross generally decreases with a decrease in vehicle flow volume and also decreases with an increase in the number of pedestrian crossings. (4) Temporal and spatial characteristics of vehicle flows and pedestrian flows and some interesting phenomena such as “crossing belt” and “vehicle belt” are found through the simulations.