Motorist Compliance to Staged Pedestrians for Pedestrian Treatments at Unsignalized Intersections

摘要

While numerous treatments exist for pedestrians at unsignalized crossings, there is growing interest in determining their effectiveness in improving pedestrian safety and motorist compliance. The TCRP and NCHRP have jointly sponsored a research project on Improving Pedestrian Safety at Unsignalized Intersections. To date, the research team has found that transportation agencies install a wide variety of treatments with the observation that treatment effectiveness can vary by street environment. Through the use of field studies as part of the TCRP/NCHRP project, researchers investigated the effectiveness of several treatments on motorist compliance with unsignalized crossings. Field studies utilized staged pedestrian crossings to standardize some of the conditions associated with the pedestrian crossing environment. This paper presents comparisons among the nine treatments included in the field studies. Treatments were originally grouped into three categories: Red (devices that show a red display), Active (devices that show a yellow indication when activated by a pedestrian), and Enhanced (signs, markings, and refuge islands). The type of treatment has an effect on compliance rates; devices that show a red display can be similarly categorized as high-performing treatments. The number of lanes being crossed can affect the performance of a device; roadways with fewer numbers of lanes tend to have higher compliance. Posted speed limit can affect the performance of certain devices, but the performance of red devices is independent of posted speed limit. On a 35 mph roadway, the best compliance rate observed for a treatment that is not showing a red indication is approximately 58 percent.