Estimation of vehicular delay in presence of illegally crossing pedestrians and determination of LOS using cluster analysis at midblock sections of urban roads

In developing countries, owing to a lack of adequate pedestrian facilities and insufficient traffic regulation, pedestrians tend to illegally cross at the midblock section to reach their destination. In developed countries, sidewalks and crosswalks are provided along with other pedestrian facilities, however, in developing countries, these facilities are either non-existent or poorly designed to cater to all age and gender groups. As such, pedestrians are forced to cross illegally at midblock sections in absence of these facilities. During these events, they compel the incoming vehicles to either alter their path or reduce their speed, thereby delaying the traffic. The paper’s aim is to quantify the delay experienced by various categories of vehicles. The research presents an exponential equation for the delay in presence of illegally crossing pedestrians. This research also seeks to define the Level of Service (LOS) on the basis of delay and volume to capacity (V/C) ratio. In this study, three urban midblock sections were chosen in Srinagar City. Further, K-means cluster analysis is then carried out to cluster the data for delay and V/C ratio. Level of Service (LOS) is thus, well-grounded on delay and V/C ratio and the same has been related to the values suggested by Indo-HCM, 2017. The findings of this study will be helpful in better understanding vehicular delay and categorizing the roads on basis of the delay that vehicles experience on that particular road, especially in mixed traffic conditions.