Intend-Wait-Cross: Towards Modeling Realistic Pedestrian Crossing Behavior

In this paper, we present a microscopic agent-based pedestrian behavior model Intend-Wait-Cross. The model is comprised of rules representing behaviors of pedestrians as a series of decisions that depend on their individual characteristics (e.g. demographics, walking speed, law obedience) and environmental conditions (e.g. traffic flow, road structure). The model’s main focus is on generating realistic crossing decision-model, which incorporates an improved formulation of time-to-collision (TTC) computation accounting for context, vehicle dynamics, and perceptual noise. Our model generates a diverse population of agents acting in a highly configurable environment. All model components, including individual characteristics of pedestrians, types of decisions they make, and environmental factors, are motivated by studies on pedestrian traffic behavior. Model parameters are calibrated using a combination of naturalistic driving data and estimates from the literature to maximize the realism of the simulated behaviors. A number of experiments validate various aspects of the model, such as pedestrian crossing patterns, and individual characteristics of pedestrians.