Pedestrian Systems Modelling: Opportunities and Challenges

Designing pedestrian systems have been a challenge due to the lack of effective tools and methods to model the autonomous behavior of pedestrians. Pedestrians are one of the main players in traffic systems, and they also are their most common victims. The high incident of pedestrians’ accidents has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to set the reduction of traffic accidents as a priority for developing countries. Agent-based modelling and multi-agent simulation, in conjunction with systems dynamics, have open opportunities for assessing the effects of government policies, economic resources, preventive and punitive programs, educational campaigns, cultural changes, and rate of accidents, to model the individual and group behavior in pedestrian modelling. We present an analysis of the literature to identify the gaps and opportunities to develop better quantitative models of pedestrian systems, including the identification of the factors and variables that affect their functionality. Keywords—Pedestrian Systems, agent-based Modelling, pedestrian Modelling.