Extracting Parameters of Vulnerable Road Users’ Behavior from Video Observation for Modeling of Urban Microsimulation

Microsimulation is an essential tool in the planning and evaluation of large infrastructure projects or the implementation of new traffic rules for the inclusion of new road users. Efficient microsimulation on a citywide scale is provided by several software solutions, however, the representation of behaviors of unmotorized vulnerable road users (VRUs i.e., pedestrians, cyclists, scooter users) with their many degrees of freedom (including suddenly stepping on the road, crossing red lights) and their close interactions due to lack of space on sidewalks and other areas tend to be highly simplified. This work utilizes camera data collected in a busy road environment with several close interactions of all types of urban road users, to define decision-making rules and models of vulnerable road user behavior to be used in microsimulation. The simulation models are based on the observed interaction statistics, through the use of Surrogate Safety Measures (SSM, in particular Time-to-Collision-(TTC-), Post Encroachment Time-(PET-) ), and the assessment of the kinematic behavior of interacting users in potential traffic conflicts.