Pedestrian fatalities are on the rise in the United States, and this trend shows no signs of reversing. One contributing factor to these incidents is pedestrians' difficulty in accurately assessing traffic conditions and vehicle actions, leading to potentially fatal collisions. One promising solution could be the use of additional visual cues through external vehicle lighting on the front of vehicles to aid pedestrians in making safer decisions. This research explored this possibility through two studies that examined an LED display mounted on the grill of a study vehicle. The display changed color to communicate whether the vehicle was accelerating or decelerating (the display turned white if the vehicle was accelerating, and amber if the vehicle was decelerating). The first study assessed how well participants could judge whether the vehicle was accelerating or decelerating when the display was active versus inactive, and whether a verbal explanation of the display's function improved their understanding. The second study not only revisited judgement accuracy, but also examined its influence on participants' crossing intentions. Additionally, this study evaluated if repeated exposure to the display in a different traffic scenario (maneuvering a left turn at a stop sign controlled intersection) enhanced understanding as well as verbal explanations, which are less feasible in real world traffic situations. Findings from these studies indicated that a clear verbal explanation of the display significantly enhanced participants' ability to discern vehicle acceleration and deceleration, but exposure to the display in other traffic scenarios provided the same benefit. Study 2 did not observe significant changes in the safety buffer (i.e. the amount of time between when participants decide to cross, and when there would be a conflict with the vehicle if they did cross), but the average number of safe crossing decisions versus unsafe was improved, though these results were inconsistent across participants. These findings suggest potential for enhancing pedestrian safety by providing pedestrians with additional information through external vehicle lighting displays. Future research should focus on optimal implementations strategies for such displays and investigate any possible unintended consequences of deploying this technology on public roads. / Master of Science / More pedestrians are dying on roadways in the United States every year, and it does not look like it's going to get better soon. One reason for these incidents is that people often have trouble figuring out what cars around them are doing, which can lead to deadly crashes. One way to help people understand what cars are doing is to add a lighting display to the fronts of cars. These lights could give pedestrians more information to make safer choices. This idea was tested in two studies that looked at adding lights to the front of a car. These lights turned white when the car was speeding up, and amber when the car was slowing down. The first study checked if people could correctly figure out if a car was speeding up or slowing down when the lights were on or off, and if telling them what the colors of the lights meant helped them understand better. The second study looked at how well people could tell whether the car was speeding up or slowing down as well, but also looked at how the lights changed the timing of when they decided to cross the street. It also looked at whether seeing the lights in a different situation, like turning left at a stop sign, helped people understand what the vehicle was doing as good as when someone explained it to them, which is not always possible in real life. The study showed that telling people what the colors of the lights mean did help people figure out if a car was speeding up or slowing down, and just seeing the lights in different road situations helped as well. The second study did not find any changes in how much time people left when deciding it was safe to cross, but it did show that some people made safer choices more often, even though this was not the same for everyone. These results show that adding these types of lights to cars might make roads safer for pedestrians. Future studies should look into the best way to use these types of lights and think about any problems that might occur if these lights are used on public roads.

Pedestrian navigation is an emerging technology with high growth market potential. In this report, we present a location based service framework for pedestrian navigation that uses smart phones as client devices and is deployed on an existing Wi-Fi infrastructure in a building. The thesis describes methods and technologies that are used for pedestrian navigation and how they can be combined to achieve an accurate and reliable solution to the navigation problem. A final evaluation indicated that the service can be used in variety of places like university campuses, shopping malls and dense urban areas.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.U.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-69).

Urban streets should be functional as both “path” and “place”, but “street as place” has been overlooked in urban design. The purpose of this thesis is to develop design guidelines for improving pedestrians’ experience on urban streets in Toronto. The study site is Gould Street in downtown Toronto. A preliminary study revealed thermal comfort, safety, social interaction and visual experience as key factors influencing pedestrians’ experience on urban streets. Design guidelines were formulated from literature review to address these key factors on Gould Street. These factors also form the framework for site inventories and analyses. The design concept, “Regenerating the river of life of the city”, is implemented by applying the guidelines to three design solutions. These alternatives were compared to identify their strengths and weaknesses related to the guidelines. Conclusions are drawn regarding the applicability of the guidelines, the limitations of the research and possibilities for future studies.

The literature on vehicle crash reconstruction provides a number of empirical or classical theoretical models for the distance pedestrians are thrown in impacts with various types of vehicles and impact speeds. The aim of this research was to compare the predictions offered by computer simulation to those obtained using the empirical and classical theoretical models traditionally utilised in vehicle-pedestrian accident reconstruction. Particular attention was paid to the pedestrian throw distance versus vehicle impact speed relationship and the determination of pedestrian injury patterns and associated severity. It was discovered that computer simulation offered improved pedestrian kinematic prediction in comparison to traditional vehicle-pedestrian accident reconstruction techniques. The superior kinematic prediction was found to result in a more reliable pedestrian throw distance versus vehicle impact speed relationship, particularly in regard to varying vehicle and pedestrian parameters such as shape, size and orientation. The pedestrian injury prediction capability of computer simulation was found to be very good for head and lower extremity injury determination. Such injury prediction capabilities were noted to be useful in providing additional correlation of vehicle impact speed predictions, whether these predictions were made using computer simulation, traditional vehicle-pedestrian accident reconstruction methods or a combination of both. A generalised approach to the use of computer simulation for the reconstruction of vehicle-pedestrian accidents was also offered. It is hoped that this approach is developed and improved by other researchers so that over time guidelines for a standardised approach to the simulation of vehicle-pedestrian accidents might evolve. Thoracic injury prediction, particularly for frontal impacts, was found to be less than ideal. It is suspected that the relatively poor thoracic biofidelity stems from the development of pedestrian mathematical models from occupant mathematical models, which were in turn developed from cadaver and dummy tests. It is hoped that future research will result in improved thoracic biofidelity in human mathematical models.

An Intelligent Pedestrian Device (IPD) is a new concept in pedestrian safety. It is defined as a microprocessor based information device which detects the approach of oncoming vehicles and informs the pedestrian whether or not it is safe to cross. IPDs could be portable or fixed to a roadside station. They could help reduce pedestrian accidents, which cost £2681 million in the UK in 1994. This study aims to assess whether the concept is socially acceptable and what the design criteria might be. A study of social acceptance involved group interviews of 5-10 participants with 84 pedestrians in five categories: adults aged 18-60, elderly aged 65+, visually restricted, parents of children aged 5-9 and children aged 10-14. The results suggest that vulnerable pedestrians are more positive about the device than the more able-bodied. Theories that may help explain this are discussed and it is concluded that, with education and marketing, the IPD could gain a degree of social acceptance. Observation of more than 900 pedestrian crossing movements at four different sites showed a range of behaviours, and that people often take risks in order to reduce delay. IPDs will require pedestrians to change some of their behaviours, especially those that are risky. Legal acceptance will demand high levels of costly product research and development, and a portable device will not be technologically feasible until well into the next century. However, the wider social benefits of IPDs may be worth the costs. An outline of design criteria for basic and sophisticated portable IPDs is given, and alternative functions are suggested. It is recommended that further work concentrate on developing software and hardware for fixed modes of IPD. It is concluded that, ultimately, acceptance will probably depend on whether Government decides that the IPD has a place in the road environment of the future.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-269). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 101-103).