Work

How Do Human-Driven Vehicles Overtake Pedestrians? Overtaking Strategy Modelling Study Based on Driving Simulator Experiments

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: In mixed pedestrian–vehicle traffic environments, overtaking pedestrians by vehicles is a prevalent and complex human–vehicle interaction scenario. However, this maneuver often leads to accidents, resulting in injuries and fatalities, primarily due to inadequate in frastructure, limited pedestrian safety awareness, and suboptimal driver behavior. To mitigate such accidents and develop active vehicle safety systems and autonomous driving algorithms based on human–vehicle interaction data, it is crucial to investigate the overtaking behavior of human drivers. This study examines driver overtaking behavior under various conditions through driving simulator experiments and evaluates how different experimental variables influence driver performance. Using data from 12 skilled drivers, a risk corridor for vehicles overtaking pedestrians is established and a lateral distance prediction model is developed. Based on this established risk corridor, a vehicle overtaking strategy is proposed. Furthermore, to assess the risk level associated with overtaking pedestrians, pedestrians’ subjective risk perceptions are quantified. The simulation results indicate that the maximum lateral error of the vehicle is approximately 0.14 m, the maximum heading error is about 0.06 radians, and the vehicle’s trajectory during pedestrian overtaking remains within the defined risk corridor. These findings are consistent with the operational characteristics of human drivers.

Source: Vehicles

DOI: 10.3390/vehicles8050106