Surrogate Safety Measures for Crosswalk Safety at Non-Signalized Locations during the Nighttime with the Use of Thermal Videos: A Case Study in Montreal

Author(s): Ting Fu, Sohail Zangenehpour, Luis F. Miranda-Moreno, Matin S. Nabavi Niaki, Nicolas Saunier, Luis Amador, Liping Fu

Slidedeck Presentation not available

Abstract:

This paper proposes a new methodology to evaluate crosswalk safety at nighttime by applying surrogate safety measures using a thermal video camera as an emerging technology in the field of transportation safety. A case study is conducted at two uncontrolled crosswalk locations in downtown Montreal. Video recordings from the thermal camera is used to compare nighttime with daytime safety conditions using surrogate safety measures including vehicle approaching speed and Post Encroachment Time. By introducing the thermal camera, this study provides a solution to the issues of low visibility at night for video analysis when road users, especially pedestrians, are difficult to track. The results showed that the thermal-video-based methodology can effectively collect interaction data at night regardless of bad lighting conditions. By using the video from the thermal camera as well as the methodology proposed in this paper, the interactions between crossing pedestrians and motorized vehicles, with related measures such as Post-Encroachment Time and speed, can be analyzed to evaluate the performance of different crosswalk treatments on pedestrian safety and priority at night, which is a topic that has been overlooked in past literature.