SMART CORRIDOR SIMULATION FOR PEDESTRIAN SAFETY: : INSIGHTS FROM VISSIM-BASED URBAN TRAFFIC MODELS

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and the growth of multimodal transport systems have increased the complexity of pedestrian–vehicle interactions at urban corridors, leading to heightened safety risks and congestion. This study develops a quantitative simulation framework using PTV VISSIM to evaluate how smart-corridor interventions—such as adaptive signal control, pedestrian detection systems, and geometric traffic-calming measures—can enhance pedestrian safety without compromising traffic efficiency. A 2.0-km urban corridor featuring multiple signalized and unsignalized crossings was modeled and calibrated with empirical traffic and pedestrian data collected from typical weekday and weekend conditions. Five simulation scenarios were constructed, including a baseline case and four smart-corridor configurations representing various technology integrations. Each scenario was replicated across different demand states using stochastic seeding to ensure statistical robustness. Conflict-based safety indicators such as Time-to-Collision (TTC), Post-Encroachment Time (PET), and Deceleration Rate to Avoid Crash (DRAC) were extracted from trajectory files using the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM). These surrogate measures were normalized by pedestrian exposure to compute conflict rates per 1,000 crossings. Results were analyzed using negative binomial generalized linear mixed models (NB-GLMM) to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for both total and severe conflicts. Complementary linear mixed models (LMM) were applied to evaluate mobility outcomes including pedestrian delay, vehicle delay, and mean speed. Sensitivity analyses tested variations in threshold definitions (TTC, PET) and behavioral parameters to validate the robustness of findings. Preliminary results indicate that smart-corridor configurations integrating adaptive pedestrian detection and traffic-calming geometry achieved up to a 35% reduction in severe conflicts (IRR = 0.65, p < 0.05) while maintaining acceptable vehicle delay increases below 10%. Pedestrian delay improvements were most pronounced under adaptive signal logic, suggesting strong synergies between detection-based actuation and optimized signal timing. The study concludes that smart-corridor designs, when strategically modeled and validated through microsimulation, can serve as a reliable decision-support tool for urban planners seeking to balance pedestrian safety and traffic mobility. The research contributes a reproducible, data-driven framework for evidence-based evaluation of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in pedestrian-rich urban environments.