Pedestrian Simulation

Identification of safety issues is the number one goal of the UAF. We allow agents to become frustrated at crosswalks, to ignore the “don’t walk” signal, to take opportunist gaps and to cross between traffic flows should they think it is safe to do so. In addition we model both the vehicle and agent’s field of view, vehicle stopping abilities and the difference between aggressive and courteous drivers interaction with agents. These quantitative measures allow us to define causality which in turn lets the UAF provide informed and accurate feedback on safety issues to urban space designers.

Identify Causality

The UAF can be used to evaluate different combinations of road layout and crossing provision to quantify the relative pedestrian safety performance of competing designs. Through analysing these complex interactions the UAF can answer the all important question – Why?

Why is design A better than design B?

Is it because:

• Traffic speeds and flows are lower in design A?
• Pedestrians have more Walk Time in design A?
• Effective line of sight is obscured by a proposed PT Stop in design B?
• Too much packing/high density takes place on approach to crossing points in design B?
• Design A provides a protected island?
• Design B delays traffic too much and causes blocking back into upstream intersections?

The UAF can answer all of these questions and more.