Using the Social Force Model to Represent the Behavior of Pedestrians at Chaotic Intersections of Developing Countries: The Case of Peru

In Peru, due to mismanagement, aggressive driving style and pedestrian behavior several conflicts appear among pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles that could not be represented by traditional traffic modeling tools. Studies in some cities of Peru (Cabrera (2010) ¿Pueden los modelos macro-determinísticos y microsimulación analizar adecuadamente las intersecciones semaforizadas en Lima?. XVI Congreso Panamericano de Transporte, Tráfico y Logística – PANAM 2010. Lisboa, Portugal) indicate that analytical models would not be adequate to analyze chaotic traffic situations. Therefore, to assess accurately the benefits of mitigation actions it would be necessary to use traffic and pedestrian micro simulation models that can be capable of representing the behavior of Peruvian pedestrians and its interaction with other transport modes. The software VISSIM and the social force model are used in this study. Both models were calibrated and validated and the pedestrian speed would increase by 25 % and contrary to what Peruvian politicians were thinking, benefits to vulnerable users would not reduce the benefits for vehicles. There would be a 35 % reduction in delays and an increment of 65 % on vehicular speed.