Interdependence in Vehicle-Pedestrian Encounters and its Implications for Vehicle Automation
DOI: 10.1109/tits.2020.3041562
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Summary
This study investigates the interdependence of driver and pedestrian behaviors during naturalistic roadway negotiations, aiming to understand how context mediates the social dilemma of right-of-way determination. The research is motivated by the need to model human interaction dynamics for the development of safer and more efficient automated vehicle systems, particularly given the high rate of pedestrian fatalities and the complexity of implicit communication between road users. The authors analyzed a dataset of 228 vehicle-pedestrian encounters extracted from the MIT AgeLab Advanced Vehicle Technology naturalistic driving study. The dataset included interactions at protected intersections (stop signs, traffic lights), designated crossings (crosswalks, parking lots), and undesignated crossings (jaywalking). Using an expanded Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) within a structural equation modeling framework, the study examined the relationship between the standard deviation of velocity (independent variable) and wait times (dependent variable) for both drivers and pedestrians. The model accounted for external factors such as vehicle maneuvers, lead vehicle presence, and pedestrian group size. Results indicated that the level of intersection protection significantly influenced dyadic behavior patterns. In protected intersections, interactions exhibited an "actor-only" pattern, where neither driver nor pedestrian wait times were significantly influenced by the partner’s velocity variability; behavior was independent. In designated crossings, a significant partner effect was observed from the pedestrian to the driver, meaning pedestrian velocity variability affected driver wait times, but not vice versa. In undesignated crossings, a "couple-oriented" pattern emerged, with significant partner effects in both directions, indicating strong mutual interdependence. Additionally, environmental factors like left-turn maneuvers and lead vehicle presence significantly impacted wait times in specific contexts. The findings suggest that roadway infrastructure mediates the necessity for negotiation between drivers and pedestrians. As protection increases, the reliance on implicit kinematic communication decreases. These insights are critical for designing automated systems that can appropriately encode human behavior, ensuring that autonomous vehicles interact safely and socially by adapting their signaling and decision-making based on the specific context of the intersection.
Key finding
Driver-pedestrian behavioral interdependence decreases as the level of intersection protection increases, with undesignated crossings showing mutual interdependence and protected crossings showing independent actor-only behaviors.
Methodology
naturalistic
Sample size: 228
Provenance
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-06 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-06 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| enrich | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-06 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-06 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
- driver vru interaction
- pedestrian behavior perception
- ehmi external hmi
- vru facing ehmi
- automation surprise
Information type
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- Theoretical Contribution: computational model