Multistate Analysis Investigating Roadway Characteristics that Affect Driver Yielding at LED-Embedded Pedestrian- and School-Crossing Signs

Abstract

To address public health concerns about rising pedestrian–vehicle crashes, traffic agencies are seeking options to reduce the number and severity of crashes. For established pedestrian-crossing locations, an increasingly common traffic-control treatment is the pedestrian- or school-crossing warning sign with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) embedded in the borders (called LED-Em in this paper). The LED-Em treatment, a system that includes LEDs embedded in warning signs and pedestrian push buttons, is pedestrian activated, so the LEDs only flash when a pedestrian is attempting to cross the street. For this analysis, researchers considered more than 7,000 drivers involved in more than 3,200 staged pedestrian crossings at 53 sites. The average driver-yielding rates at those sites were analyzed, using analysis of covariance models to assess the effects of various roadway characteristic variables as well as traffic-control device characteristic variables. The statistical analysis showed that the posted speed limit and the vehicle volume at the time of the crossing influenced a driver’s decision to yield to a pedestrian attempting to cross a street when an LED-Em treatment was present. Higher posted speed limits and higher vehicle volumes were associated with lower driver yielding.