Measures of activity-based pedestrian exposure to the risk of vehicle-pedestrian collisions: Space-time path vs. potential path tree methods

•Two probabilistic approaches to measure pedestrian exposure are developed.•Space-time path (STP) and potential path tree (PPT) methods are compared.•STP is a cost-effective deterministic approach.•PPT can better explain the collision pattern.

Research on the extent to which pedestrians are exposed to road collision risk is important to the improvement of pedestrian safety. As precise geographical information is often difficult and costly to collect, this study proposes a potential path tree method derived from time geography concepts in measuring pedestrian exposure. With negative binomial regression (NBR) and geographically weighted Poisson regression (GWPR) models, the proposed probabilistic two-anchor-point potential path tree (PPT) approach (including the equal and weighted PPT methods) are compared with the deterministic space-time path (STP) method. The results indicate that both STP and PPT methods are useful tools in measuring pedestrian exposure. While the STP method can save much time, the PPT methods outperform the STP method in explaining the underlying vehicle-pedestrian collision pattern. Further research efforts are needed to investigate the influence of walking speed and route choice.