High-Visibility Enforcement on Driver Compliance With Pedestrian Right-of-Way Laws

This study developed and evaluated strategies to increase driver yielding to pedestrians on a citywide basis using high-visibility pedestrian right-of-way enforcement. After a site recruitment process, Gainesville, Florida, participated in the project. The Gainesville Police Department (GPD) took the lead for the city and became a full partner in the project development and research. Six pedestrian sites received enforcement and 6 more sites that did not receive enforcement were comparison sites to test for generalization effects. The program evaluation consisted of weekly measurement of driver yielding behavior at treated and comparison sites and crash analyses. The GPD conducted high-visibility crosswalk operations using decoy pedestrian crossings, inexpensive engineering (advance yield markings, in-street STATE LAW YIELD TO PEDESTRIAN signs), education (earned media, outreach efforts to elements within the community), and road signs that provided feedback on the percentage of drivers yielding right-of-way to pedestrians during the preceding week. The introduction of high-visibility enforcement over the course of a year led to a marked increase in yielding to pedestrians from a baseline level of 32% to 62% at enforcement crosswalk sites for staged crossings, and an increase from 54% to 83% for regular crosswalk users (unstaged crossings). At comparison crosswalk sites, yielding to pedestrians increased from 37% to 59% for staged crossings and from 50% to 73% for regular crosswalk users. A time-series regression model showed that all treatment sites (with the exception of one site with very high yield rates at the beginning of the study) showed a significant increase in yielding behavior. At the generalization sites, the change was approximately half that produced at the enforcement sites. A comparison of staged and unstaged pedestrian crossing results showed that, after adjustments for the difference in baseline levels, there was no difference in drivers who responded to a staged versus unstaged procedure.

• Record URL:
  http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811786.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/31927
• Corporate Authors:

  Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo

  Department of Psychology
  Kalamazoo, MI  United States  49008

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  Office of Behavioral Safety Research, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Van Houten, Ron
  • Malenfant, J E Louis
  • Blomberg, Richard D
  • Huitema, Bradley E
  • Casella, Sarah
• Publication Date: 2013-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 78p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Compliance; Crash analysis; Crosswalks; Pedestrian safety; Right of way (Traffic); Traffic law enforcement; Yielding
• Geographic Terms: Gainesville (Florida)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01492993
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT HS 811 786
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-06-D-00036
• Files: HSL, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 16 2013 2:57PM