An extended car-following model with the consideration of the illegal pedestrian crossing

Abstract Pedestrian illegal crossings at midblock are very unpredictable and pose a potential tragic conflict with vehicles besides generally disrupting the normal flow of traffic. The drivers need to not only anticipate but also respond to their actions accordingly to avoid potential conflicts. The objective of this paper was to describe the behavior of the drivers under illegal pedestrian crossing circumstances by proposing an extended car-following model, and then analyze the impacts of the illegal pedestrian crossing on the normal traffic flow at the midblock. In this study, three conditions have been considered, namely: no pedestrians, pedestrians present but waiting, and pedestrians crossing. The numerical results illustrate that the disruptive nature of the illegal pedestrian crossing could worsen when the number of pedestrian is large, the pedestrian platoon size is small, and the speed limitation is high.