Evaluating Countermeasures to Improve Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety

While motorist safety on roadways in the United States has seen steady improvements, bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities have been increasing. Failure to yield to crossing pedestrian and bicyclists by drivers at signalized intersections with permissive left turns leads to one of the common type of bicyclist/pedestrian crash at intersections. A supplemental traffic signal has been proposed to warn the left-turning drivers about yielding to pedestrians and bicyclists at intersections. Different supplemental warning traffic signal designs have been proposed, mostly for right-turning applications A modified ANSI Z535.3 methodology was used to evaluate driver comprehension of four potential designs using a 2-stage survey. In stage 1, 259 drivers ranked the designs based on how well each design conveyed the message. The two highest ranked designs were tested using an open ended question in stage 2. Based on 145 responses, a modified version of R10-15 MUTCD sign was found to be most promising. This design had higher comprehension for all groups of drivers: younger, older, female and male. Future research should evaluate comprehension of this sign across different regions of the country and field evaluation should be conducted to evaluate the safety benefits of such a supplemental signal.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB50 Standing Committee on Traffic Control Devices.
• Authors:
  • Alsghan, Ibrahim
  • Santiago, Kelvin R
  • Chitturi, Madhav V
  • Bill, Andrea R
  • Noyce, David A
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 6p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Countermeasures; Cyclists; Evaluation; Highway safety; Improvements; Pedestrian safety
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01660299
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-04701
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 20 2018 9:27AM