Summary

The goal of this project is to research drivers' and pedestrians' behavior at crosswalks and their knowledge of existing traffic laws regarding crosswalks, and to write a review of pedestrian injury countermeasures guided to address the observed behavior patterns.

Pedestrian injuries at crosswalk locations represent a significant problem. In 2002, 22.7 percent of US pedestrians involved in collisions were in a crosswalk at the time of the collision, and most of these occurred at an intersection (96.4 percent). A majority of all crosswalk collisions resulted in pedestrian injury or fatality (98.6 percent), and about one-third resulted in severe or fatal injury (32.5 percent). Most of these crosswalk collisions were related to driver behavior.

A great number of pedestrian injures and deaths are due to the failure of both drivers and pedestrian to follow the vehicle code, which states that 1) The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection and 2) Every pedestrian upon a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway so near as to constitute an immediate hazard. The failure of both drivers and pedestrians to follow this code is likely due to several factors operating separately or together. Broadly, categories of factors include:

• Lack of knowledge of the vehicle code. This could apply differentially to marked vs. unmarked crosswalks,
• Knowledge of the vehicle code, but perceiving that the code is not enforced and is, therefore, routinely ignored,
• Regardless of knowledge of the vehicle code, inattention and speed (for pedestrians and drivers).

Research Plan

To understand crosswalk behavior, it is important to measure driver and pedestrian knowledge and awareness of the vehicle code. To do this we will use surveys that will assess driver knowledge, behavior, and perceptions of pedestrian behavior, and vice versa. To assess actual behavior, we will conduct direct observations of drivers and pedestrians at various types of crosswalks across California.

To develop countermeasure recommendations based on the data collected, we will first conduct an intensive review of literature on available and emerging countermeasures for reducing pedestrian injury. This will include a review of enforcement, education, and engineering approaches, each of which has a substantial body of published research. In addition to the review, the information gathered from the surveys will assist in designing deployment strategies.

Along with recommendations for specific countermeasures, we will develop a "best practices" manual. This manual will discuss conflicts commonly found between pedestrians and drivers at marked and unmarked crosswalks, reasons for these conflicts, and an analysis of which countermeasures or combinations of countermeasures have proven most effective in treating the specific conflict scenarios. Since none of the "3 E's" will solve the problem for California alone, the countermeasure section will include ways that communities have used engineering, enforcement and educational approaches in pedestrian safety efforts.

In order to ensure that our findings directly benefit communities in California, the Traffic Safety Center will develop and facilitate a training program for traffic safety practitioners. We will also prepare a final report in which we present summaries of (i) the data gathered on knowledge, awareness, and behavior of drivers and pedestrians and (ii) the review of countermeasures. The report will interpret the data we have collected and use the results to generate a series of specific interventions recommended to change driver and pedestrian behavior with the goal of reducing pedestrian injury across the State.