EVALAUTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFRASTRUCTURE-BASED COUNTERMEASURES ON PEDESTRIAN SAFETY (TRB Paper # 12-2895)

摘要

This paper summarizes an evaluation of the effectiveness of selected infrastructure-basedcountermeasures to enhance pedestrian safety. These countermeasures are both pedestrian55oriented and driver-oriented. The countermeasures evaluated in this paper are high-visibilitycrosswalk, median refuge, Danish offset, and pedestrian channelization. The selectedcountermeasures were deployed at eight locations in the Las Vegas metropolitan area in Nevada.The evaluations are based on field observations of pedestrian and driver behaviors before andafter the installation of the countermeasures. Their effectiveness was evaluated using pedestrianstrapped in the street, pedestrians who looked for vehicles before beginning to cross, pedestrianswho looked for vehicles before crossing 2nd half of the street, captured pedestrians, divertedpedestrians (those who had to go out of their way to use the crosswalk or changed their course ofaction), drivers yielding to pedestrians, distance driver yielded or stopped before the crosswalk,and driver blocking the crosswalk as the measures of effectiveness. Results obtained show thathigh-visibility crosswalk and median refuge help improve pedestrian as well as driver behavior,while Danish offset was observed to increase diverted pedestrians and reduce pedestrians trappedin the middle of the street. An increase in the distance at which drivers stopped/yielded forpedestrians was observed at sites with these countermeasures. Results obtained based on analysisof data at the site with pedestrian channelization are inconclusive.