Both safe and efficient? Unraveling the behavioral sequence of jaywalking under median presence and autonomous vehicle platoons in virtual reality

초록

Jaywalking is often treated as a traffic violation, yet on urban streets it can be a rational response to a safety-efficiency trade-off. In urban environments with widespread autonomous-vehicle (AV) deployment, optimistic expectations suggest that predictable autonomous vehicle platoons could provide frequent crossing opportunities, so that "jaywalking" becomes indistinguishable from ordinary walking. However, empirical evidence on how platoon operations and street design shape crossing execution and outcomes is scarce. We conducted an immersive virtual reality experiment with 99 participants who repeatedly crossed a two-lane bidirectional roadway under eight scenarios combining platoon speed, inter-platoon gap, and central-median presence. Key findings from multi-level analyses are as follows. First, platoon speed and inter-platoon gap showed distinct relationships with crossing behavior. Lower platoon speed was associated with larger safety margins and lower near-lane collision occurrence, while larger inter-platoon gaps were associated with more frequent jaywalking attempts, larger safety margins, and lower distance inefficiency among successfully completed crossings. Second, the presence of a central median increased the likelihood of initiating a crossing, consistent with a psychologically supportive refuge, but reduced far-lane safety margins. Third, collisions were disproportionately concentrated in the near lane even after accounting for exposure, indicating that lane entry is the primary safety bottleneck under platooning. These findings experimentally demonstrate how platoon speed, inter-platoon gap, and central-median presence shape different stages of jaywalking behavior, from jaywalking initiation to crossing execution and trajectory formation.

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