Pedestrians’ perceptions of countermeasure efficacy in reducing risks at intersection crossings

Abstract

The opinions pedestrians have regarding the efficacy of safety countermeasures and how these countermeasures impact an area’s walkability are currently not known. To address this gap in research 268 college students participated in a study to determine pedestrian appraisals of countermeasure efficacy at varying levels of intersection threat (determined by speed) and driver behaviors (safe, distracted, and aggressive). The authors developed a questionnaire instrument designed to assess pedestrians’ feelings of the efficacy of four types of safety countermeasure interventions: infrastructure design, increasing pedestrian control, traffic enforcement, and education. Results indicate that overall speed seems to have a greater impact on pedestrian perceptions of countermeasure efficacy than driver behaviors and pedestrians seem to report greater efficacy for countermeasures at higher speeds. Findings also suggest if a pedestrian views a countermeasure as effective that perspective persists across behaviors. Implications of the findings for pedestrian safety countermeasure design, increasing walking behaviors, and including pedestrian perceptions in assessments of an area’s overall walkability are discussed.