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Recommended Procedures for Chapter 13, 'Pedestrians,' of the Highway Capacity Manual

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Summary

FHWA final report (FHWA-RD-98-107, Feb 1998) by NCSU that proposes revised and new operational analysis procedures for pedestrian and mixed-use facilities, slated for the revised U.S. Highway Capacity Manual Chapter 13 (“Pedestrians”). It defines how to grade pedestrian facilities by Level of Service (LOS A–F) using space, flow, speed, and delay, and updates the underlying pedestrian characteristics (walking speed, body buffer, capacity). It is the foundational reference for quantifying pedestrian flow, density, and comfort on sidewalks and at crossings — the same operating envelope a sidewalk delivery robot must share.

Key Contributions

  • Updated pedestrian walking speeds: default 1.2 m/s (3.9 ft/s), and 1.0 m/s where >20% of users are over 65 (down from the old HCM 1.4 m/s).
  • Revised walkway LOS thresholds and capacity: ~75 ped/min/m (4,500 ped/h/m) at 0.75 m/s, with a 0.75 m²/ped walking buffer zone as the capacity threshold.
  • New LOS measures the HCM lacked: platoon-adjusted walkway LOS, transportation-terminal LOS, stairway LOS, crossflow LOS, and mixed-use (pedestrian-bicycle) path LOS.
  • Pedestrian-delay-based LOS for signalized (A <10 s … F ≥60 s) and unsignalized (A <5 s … F ≥45 s) crossings, paralleling vehicle delay LOS.
  • Quantified signal noncompliance and an effective-WALK adjustment: WALKe = WALK + 5 s; flashing DON’T WALKe = flashing DON’T WALK − 5 s.

Methodology and Architecture

Synthesis/recommendation report distilling a companion literature review plus NCSU field observations into HCM-ready LOS tables and equations. Pedestrian characteristics are set first (0.3 m² standing body ellipse, 0.75 m² walking buffer, 3 s start-up, grade correction). Facilities are then organized into uninterrupted (sidewalks/walkways, platoons, terminals via Davis & Braaksma, stairs, crossflows via Khisty, shared paths via Botma’s event-frequency method), interrupted (signalized crossings with noncompliance + delay LOS, street corners via Fruin-Benz time-space, unsignalized crossings via gap-acceptance tactics), and networks (average-speed or travel-time-ratio LOS). Delay computation methods from Pretty, Dunn & Pretty, Griffiths et al., Roddin, and Virkler et al. are compiled into an appendix.

Results

  • Walkway LOS (recommended): A ≥5.6 m²/ped, capacity ~75 ped/min/m, speed at capacity 0.75 m/s, F <0.75 m²/ped.
  • Platoon-adjusted walkway LOS: A ≥49 m²/ped to F at 1 m²/ped (max platoon flow ~59 ped/min/m).
  • Crossflows (Khisty): LOS E at 1 m/s, 75 ped/min/m, 1.25 m²/ped.
  • Noncompliance: observed de facto WALK extensions of +2 s (Brisbane), +5 s (U.S./NCSU), +8 s (Virkler); disobedience up to 70%, concentrated below ~1,500 veh/h two-way.
  • Reference delays (Griffiths et al.): 1.4 s zebra, 10.1 s fixed-time pelican, 9.8 s vehicle-actuated pelican; MacLean & Howie: 17 s signalized vs 1.7 s unsignalized midblock.
  • chen-2018-pedestrian-robot-interaction-experiments-in — provides the pedestrian space, speed, and density (LOS) envelope that a delivery robot must respect when sharing a sidewalk and interacting with pedestrians; Chen’s pedestrian-robot interaction experiments play out inside this flow regime.
  • gehrke-2022-evaluation-of-sidewalk-autonomous-delivery — supplies the pedestrian capacity, buffer-zone, and crossing-delay baselines against which sidewalk autonomous delivery robots’ footprint, blocking, and right-of-way impacts can be evaluated.

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