The Study of Pedestrian Behavior in Pedestrian Environments by Cellular Automata Model

Pedestrian environments (PEs) are one of urban spaces that can improve walkability of people and foster social attitude to walking, as well as to enhance safety and environment. In order to improve the quality of PEs, it is important and necessary to design and build them in accordance with the walking behavior pattern of pedestrians.The aim of this research is to identify the characteristics of pedestrian flow and their route choice pattern by determining the pedestrian bahavior parameters and constructing pedestrian behavior models in the pedestrian environment. In order to study the pattern of pedestrian behavior in PEs, the PE of Khayyam in Qazvin is chosen as a case study. The research is carried out by collecting data from videos of the PE at the peak and non-peak hours using a cellular automata model, and simulating pedestrian flow in PE. A discrete choice model, i.e. the logit one for each of the cells in the neighborhood definition as the choice set are constructed.Results show that Pedestrians at the cells in proximity to land use prefer to occupy lateral cells in their next step, and at the middle strip of the PE, they tend to move either straightly to move forward, or perpendicularly to cross the PE.The relative symmetry in arrangement of obstacles with respect to each pedestrian causes to the selection of straight path.