Using Crash Modification Factors to Appraise the Safety Effects of Pedestrian Countdown Signals for Drivers
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 144, Issue 5
Abstract
Although pedestrian countdown signals (PCSs) are meant for pedestrians, they give cues to drivers on the remaining amount of green as the timer counts down. This study focuses on the evaluation of safety effectiveness of PCSs to drivers in the cities of Jacksonville and Gainesville, Florida, using the before-after study with the empirical Bayes method. This analysis explored 110 intersections with PCSs and their respective 93 comparison sites. The findings indicate that PCSs significantly improve driver safety by 8.8% reduction in total crashes, 8.0% in rear-end and 7.1% in property-damage-only crashes, where both of these results were significant at the 95% confidence level. Results for angle crashes as well as fatal and injury crashes were not significant at the 95% confidence level. Also discussed in this study are the crash modification functions developed to show the relationship between the estimated crash modification factors and total entering traffic volume at the intersection. In summary, the results suggest the usefulness of PCSs for drivers.
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Acknowledgments
This project was supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation Grant DTRT13-G-UTC42, and administered by the Center for Accessibility and Safety for an Aging Population (ASAP) at Florida State University (FSU), Florida A&M University (FAMU), and the University of North Florida (UNF). We also thank the Florida Department of Transportation for providing the roadway data. The opinions, results, and findings expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Center for Accessibility and Safety for an Aging Population, Florida State University, Florida A&M University, or the University of North Florida.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 144 • Issue 5 • May 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 17, 2017
Accepted: Oct 4, 2017
Published online: Feb 23, 2018
Published in print: May 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jul 23, 2018
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