Bridging the gap: understanding the factors affecting pedestrian safety perceptions in the age of driverless vehicles
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55329/pjax7195Keywords:
driverless vehicles, electro-dermal activity (EDA), mixed traffic scenario, pedestrian behavior, virtual reality (VR) simulationsAbstract
he advent of autonomous technologies necessitates a deeper understanding of pedestrian behavior and safety in environments where pedestrians need to interact with driverless vehicles (DV). Our study explores how pedestrians perceive and react to DVs compared with Human-Driven Vehicles (HDV), focusing on objective measures such as gap acceptance (GA) and psychophysiological indicators like Electro-dermal Activity (EDA). Structured in three phases, the study comprises a preliminary questionnaire to gauge public perception, followed by immersive virtual reality (VR) simulations that mimic real-world traffic scenarios within a VR environment, and concludes with a post-experiment survey. The simulation experiment was designed to analyze pedestrian responses to varying traffic scenarios developed using DVs and HDVs, measuring EDA to assess emotional and stress responses leading to changes in the gap acceptance behavior. The study employed hypothesis testing to assess DV's impact on pedestrians' psychophysiological reactions that can lead to changes in pedestrian behavior. This study also explored the effect of education level and perception of pedestrians towards automation technology that may influence outcomes. The analysis of EDA showed higher stress levels in scenarios involving DVs measured using the Galvanic Skin Response component. This result heightened stress response may be attributed to the unpredictability and novelty of DVs. The analysis with gap acceptance (GA) time revealed significant differences in GA times across traffic scenarios. Pedestrians exhibited longer GA times with DVs than HDVs, suggesting cautious crossing behavior. Our results underscore the impact of traffic scenarios on pedestrian behavior and stress levels, highlighting the influence of driverless technology on pedestrian dynamics.
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Author Biographies
Saki Rezwana, University of Connecticut, the United States of America
Saki Rezwana, PhD is an Assistant Professor at Navajo Technical University, specializing in transportation engineering. She earned her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Connecticut, focusing on pedestrian behavior and interactions with autonomous vehicles. With a strong research background in traffic safety, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and transportation equity, Dr. Rezwana has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications and international conferences. She is actively involved in NSF and NASA-funded research projects and has a proven track record in teaching, course design, and mentoring students. Her work emphasizes bridging innovative transportation solutions with equitable and sustainable outcomes.
CRediT contribution: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing—original draft.
Mohammad Razaur Rahman Shaon, University of Connecticut, the United States of America
Mohammad Razaur Rahman Shaon, Ph.D., PE, PTOE, RSP1 is an Associate Research Scientist at Connecticut Transportation Institute. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a focus in Transportation Engineering. His research work examines the fundamental nature of road user behavior, particularly how traffic safety is influenced by driver behaviors and proposed statistical and econometric models to account for driver behavior variables into crash occurrences. He has authored more than 25 peer-reviewed research articles and conference proceedings.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
Nicholas Lownes, University of Connecticut, the United States of America
Nicholas Lownes, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Austin. His research work focused on public transportation systems, network modelling, traffic microsimulation, and public transportation economics.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Writing—review & editing.
Eric Jackson, University of Connecticut, the United States of America
Eric Jackson, PhD is an Associate Research Professor at UConn. He also serves as currently the Executive Director of the Connecticut Transportation Institute and the Director of the Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center (CTSRC) at UConn. He completed his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Kentucky in 2002 and his Masters (2004) and PhD (2008) at the University of Connecticut. His research efforts include conducting research on driver behavior and vehicle dynamics impacts on vehicle emissions. He assisted in the complete overhaul and modernization of crash data and safety analysis in the state. Dr. Jackson's current research has focused on improving the crash data collection process in Connecticut as well as providing public access to crash data and transportation safety analysis tools.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Project administration, Supervision, Writing—review & editing.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Saki Rezwana, Mohammad Razaur Rahman Shaon, Nicholas Lownes, Eric Jackson
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