Evaluating the Effectiveness of Pedestrian Countdown Signals on the Safety of Older Drivers in Michigan

Pedestrian countdown signals (PCSs) are specifically designed to improve the safety for pedestrians. However, studies have shown that PCSs may be used by approaching drivers in the same way as other traffic signal anticipation devices such as green signal countdown (GSC). While other signal anticipation devices have been found to benefit drivers, a very limited number of studies have focused on PCSs benefits to drivers especially those age 65 years and above. This study evaluated the effectiveness as well as economic benefits of pedestrian PCSs on drivers 65 years and above in Michigan. A before- after study with a comparison group methodology was used to evaluate the effectiveness of PCSs using randomly and selected treatment sites. Geometric characteristics, land use characteristics as well as traffic data for each of the treated sites were used as the basis for carefully selecting the comparison sites. The evaluation results show reductions of 15 percent and 52 percent in total and fatal/injury crashes involving drivers 65 years and above, respectively. An economic analysis conducted also showed a tremendous benefit-cost ratio of 438:1 for drivers 65 years and above.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB60 Standing Committee on Safe Mobility of Older Persons. Alternative title: Evaluating Effectiveness of Pedestrian Countdown Signals on Safety of Older Drivers
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Kwigizile, Valerian
  • Boateng, Richard Atta
  • Oh, Jun-Seok
  • Lariviere, Kimberly
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged drivers; Benefit cost analysis; Crash rates; Crosswalks; Highway safety; Pedestrian clearance interval (Traffic signals); Traffic signal timing
• Uncontrolled Terms: Countdown traffic signals
• Geographic Terms: Michigan
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor; I85: Safety Devices used in Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01590264
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-3716
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 16 2016 2:35PM