Safety Effectiveness of Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons Pedestrian Enhancement
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 149, Issue 8
Abstract
A rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB) is a pedestrian crosswalk countermeasure system that cautions drivers by providing them with real-time warning about the presence of pedestrians in an upcoming crosswalk. This paper investigated the safety effectiveness of existing RRFBs installed in the state of Florida between 2013 and 2018. Additionally, traffic volume, roadway characteristics, and land-use mix were included as explanatory variables. The study evaluated 154 treated sites with RRFB installations and 158 control sites with similar characteristics. Safety performance functions (SPF) were developed, and crash modification factors (CMF) were calculated using the empirical Bayes (EB) methodology for various crash types. A CMF of 0.31 for total pedestrian crashes was estimated, showing that RRFBs have the potential to reduce 69% of total pedestrian-involved crashes. CMF for total vehicular crashes and rear-end crashes were also investigated to ascertain whether RRFBs have adverse effects on rear-end crashes. CMF for total vehicular crashes was found to be 1.14, showing that RRFBs do not have positive effect in reducing total vehicular crashes. Similarly, it was observed that CMF for the rear-end crashes was 1.11, indicating RRFBs might have adverse effect on rear-end crashes because vehicles needs to slow down or stop due to the presence of pedestrians. CMFunctions for significant variables for pedestrian, rear-end, and total crash models were also estimated in this study. An economic analysis indicated that the implementation of RRFBs will yield a benefit to cost ratio (calculated over 3 years) of approximately 85.5 with a 4% discount rate.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: Amrita Goswamy contributed to the study conception and design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of results, and draft manuscript preparation. Mohamed Abdel-Aty contributed to the study conception and design, analysis and interpretation of results, and draft manuscript preparation. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the paper.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 149 • Issue 8 • August 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 4, 2022
Accepted: Feb 24, 2023
Published online: May 31, 2023
Published in print: Aug 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Oct 31, 2023
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Cited by
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