Calibration of the pedestrian activity-simulation model for Hong Kong urban areas

This paper puts forward an activity-based approach to model and simulate the pedestrian travel and activity choice behaviors in the congested urban areas with empirical data support. The pedestrian activity behaviors are explicitly taken into account in the newly developed Pedestrian Activity-Simulation (PAS) model which can be used for better planning of pedestrian facilities. This paper does not only focus on walking movements, but involves a broad view of pedestrian behaviors, such as the pedestrian activity and destination choices, the bi-directional pedestrian flow effects on walking speeds, the walking speed variations and the level of service standards of the pedestrian facilities. The newly developed PAS model consists of four necessary elements. They are the pedestrian activity and destination choice models, the generalized walking time functions for signalized crosswalks and outdoor walkways, the walking speed variations with the uni-directional and bi-directional pedestrian flow effects and the time sliced pedestrian demands in terms of Origin-Destination (OD) matrices. The newly proposed PAS model is calibrated with the empirical data. A case study in Hong Kong urban areas is carried out to assess the performance of the PAS model. By using the newly developed PAS model, urban transport planners will be able to predict pedestrian travel choice taking into account the activity behaviors and subsequently be able to offer a more effective estimation of the pedestrian OD flow matrices and link flows in the congested urban areas.