Study Details

Study Title: Evaluating Effectiveness of Pedestrian Countdown Signals on Safety of Older Drivers

Authors: Kwigizile et al.

Publication Date:JAN, 2016

Abstract: Pedestrian countdown signals (PCSs) are specifically designed to improve the safety for pedestrians. However, studies have shown that PCSs may be used by approaching drivers in the same way as other traffic signal anticipation devices such as green signal countdown (GSC). While other signal anticipation devices have been found to benefit drivers, a very limited number of studies have focused on PCSs benefits to drivers especially those age 65 years and above. This study evaluated the effectiveness as well as economic benefits of pedestrian PCSs on drivers 65 years and above in Michigan. A before- after study with a comparison group methodology was used to evaluate the effectiveness of PCSs using randomly and selected treatment sites. Geometric characteristics, land use characteristics as well as traffic data for each of the treated sites were used as the basis for carefully selecting the comparison sites. The evaluation results show reductions of 15 percent and 52 percent in total and fatal/injury crashes involving drivers 65 years and above, respectively. An economic analysis conducted also showed a tremendous benefit-cost ratio of 438:1 for drivers 65 years and above.

Study Citation: Kwigizile, V., Boateng, R.A., Oh, J., and Lariviere, K. "Evaluating Effectiveness of Pedestrian Countdown Signals on Safety of Older Drivers". Presented at the 95th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Paper No. 16-3716, Washington, D.C., (2016).


CMFs Associated With This Study

Category: Intersection traffic control

Countermeasure: Install pedestrian countdown timer

CMF CRF(%)QualityCrash TypeCrash SeverityRoadway TypeArea Type
0.85152 StarsOtherAllNot specifiedNot specified
0.48523 StarsOtherK,A,B,CNot specifiedNot specified