Developing an Expert System for Choosing the Pedestrian Crossing Type in mid-block Segments

One of the most important aspects of human presence in urban spaces, which causes the vitality and dynamism of these spaces, as well as their social role, is the pedestrian movement. Pedestrians are vulnerable road users and damages to them are often irreparable and irreversible and cause injury or death. The purpose of this study was to determine the percentage of using pedestrian bridges in Tehran as well as environmental and human factors affecting the use or non-use of pedestrians crossing at the bridge's influence. Several environmental factors such as the median pedestrian barriers as well as human factors such as the age and the personal characteristics were considered in this study. In this research, decision was made in a fuzzy environment, which is a multi-value environment. The knowledge base used in an expert system is formed using fuzzy logic and could be used as a fuzzy decision support system for managing and planning for the construction of new pedestrian bridges or for modifying existing bridges. The results of this research can be used to identify high-capacity bridges for equipping other bridges, locating for the construction of new bridges, assessing the status of each bridge and its use. The results show that the most effective factors for using the overpasses by pedestrians were the bridge facilities among the environmental factors and the perceived identity among the human factors. Having compared the results of this study using the fuzzy reasoning model with the real outputs show a 98 percent correlation and the 20 percent error in estimating the probability for using the pedestrian overpass to cross the street.