STUDY ON REFUGE ISLAND DESIGN BASED ON PEDESTRIAN PSYCHOLOGY TOWARD APPLICATION OF TWO-STEP CROSSING SYSTEM

Abstract

To reduce cycle times at large signalized intersections, it is necessary to understand how pedestrians can feel safety in refuge islands and to design the intersections based on a pedestrian two-step crossing system. For this purpose, we measured pedestrians' psycho-physiological burdens in waiting at refuge islands by an indoor experiment using a virtual walking simulator. As a result, we revealed the relationship among the structure of refuge islands, pedestrians' images toward the refuge islands and pedestrians' feeling of safety. We also considered how to set the level of service for refuge island design from the viewpoint of pedestrians' feeling of safety and what the important points to design more sophisticated refuge island are.