Analysis of Pedestrians’ Road Crossing Behavior, in Social Groups

A significant percentage of pedestrians walk in social groups (friends, families, or acquaintances who together). Although patterns generated by interactions among group members have been shown to affect crowd dynamics, studies on the effect at different crossing phases under low pedestrian density are limited. This study aims comprehensively examine influence size and sex composition pedestrians’ behaviors when walking alone with friends before, during, after road crossing. For this, experiences were carried out controlled small (varying composition) three unsignalized crosswalks density. The average speed distance between young six segments trajectories (two each phase), extracted from video recordings, analyzed linear mixed models. Results show that reduce their approaching curb, they accelerate while crosswalk, again reach other side. In all phases, was lower than single pedestrians, females’ walked slower males, except during crossing, where no sex-related differences found. On contrary, before increased decreased second segment crosswalk. smallest observed female dyads. These findings relevant implications for research behavior, helping better understand complexity dynamics improve safety.