High-Visibility Enforcement on Driver Compliance with Pedestrian Right-of-Way Laws: 4-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

This study is a follow-up to a previous study that implemented high-visibility enforcement with social norming to produce a cultural change in driver yielding behavior. The objective was to determine the extent to which observed increases in driver yielding obtained in the previous study persisted over a follow-up period of nearly 4 years after the program of high-visibility enforcement intervention ended. The study involved limited enforcement and no new publicity. Observers collected data on staged and naturally occurring crossings at the same six sites at which enforcement took place in the previous study and at the same six spillover-effect sites (referred to as generalization sites in this report) where no enforcement had taken place. Observers employed the same observation procedures used in the original study. Results showed that yielding behavior continued on an upward trend with both the enforcement and generalization sites, exhibiting significantly higher rates of driver yielding during the follow-up period than at the end of the intervention period almost 4 years earlier. Yielding rates averaged 76.5% at the enforcement sites and 77.0% at the generalization sites. Thus, above and beyond the significant increase documented by the original study from before to immediately after the intervention, this study showed an additional significant increase in yielding from the end of the intervention to the follow-up period. The results suggest a fundamental change in driver behavior likely resulting from a tipping-point effect.