Gap Acceptance Behavior Of Violators At Signalized Intersections

Intersections often witness congestion and more traffic accidents. Red light running behavior is considered as a major reason for high traffic accident rate. Therefore, it is necessary to study red light running behavior in the signalized intersections. Before crossing the signalized intersection, one needs to choose a suitable gap so that he can safely cross through, this is called’gap acceptance behavior’. The study of gap acceptance behavior mainly concentrated on the pedestrian, less of bicycle and electric bicycle riders now. Accordingly, in this paper, we consider non-motorized vehicles as objects, then we study the gap acceptance behavior and its influencing factors of bicycle and electric bicycle riders and compare it with pedestrians by field research and behavior modeling. The main works are as follows:(1) Distribution and comparison of gaps of violators. This paper employs basic statistical analysis methods to explore distribution rules of violators’gaps. Then, this paper compares differences of different crossing stages as well as differences of different traffic modes in distribution of gaps. At last, this paper fits out gap distribution of violators. The outcome shows the accepted gaps from near end are significantly larger than those from far end. The three traffic modes present no significant differences in rejected and accepted gaps. Rejected and accepted gaps of different traffic modes basically comply with lognormal distribution.(2) Gap acceptance models of violators and analysis about their influence. This paper uses dual logistic regressions to establish gap acceptance models and study the factors which influence gap acceptance of violators. Then this paper analyzes differences of different traffic modes and different crossing stags in gap acceptance behaviors. The outcome shows factors which influence gap acceptance of violators mainly involve crossing stages, gap values, gap types and conflicting behaviors. Gap values and gap types exert direct influence on gap acceptance of different crossing sages. Moreover, violators from near end are subject to the influence of conflicting behaviors.(3) Survival analysis about gap acceptance behaviors of passers-by:this paper uses survival analysis method to study the gap distribution rules of passers-by who arrive during the red light. In addition, this paper also compares differences of different traffic modes and different crossing stages in gap distribution. At last, this paper establishes the hazard-based model of gap acceptance in the consideration of influencing factors. The outcome indicates that there are no significant differences among three traffic modes in gap acceptance. Gap distribution of passers-by presents significant differences over different crossing stages. When gap value is less than 27 seconds, passers-by face higher risks of accepting gaps at far end than at near end. When gap value exceeds 27 seconds, most passers-by at far end often cross streets in green light while those at near end often find gaps to cross through the red light. Factors which influence gap acceptance of passers-by involve genders, number of violations, traffic flow, gap types, conflicting car types and conflicting behaviors.