Citation

Pulugurtha SS, Self DR. Int. J. Inj. Control Safe. Promot. 2015; 22(2): 143-152.

Affiliation

Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte , Charlotte , NC , USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17457300.2013.857694

PMID

24304184

Abstract

This paper focuses on an analysis of pedestrian and motorists' actions at sites with pedestrian hybrid beacons (HAWK beacon) and assesses their effectiveness in improving the safety of pedestrians. Descriptive and statistical analyses (one-tail two-sample T-test and two-proportion Z-test) were conducted using field data collected during morning and evening peak hours at three study sites in the city of Charlotte, NC, before and after the installation of pedestrian hybrid beacons. Further, an analysis was conducted to assess the change in pedestrian and motorists' actions over time (before the installation; 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after the installation). Results showed an increase in average traffic speed at one of the pedestrian hybrid beacon sites while no specific trends were observed at the other two pedestrian hybrid beacon sites. A decrease in the number of motorists not yielding to pedestrians, pedestrians trapped in the middle of the street, and pedestrian-vehicle conflicts were observed at all the three pedestrian hybrid beacon sites. The installation of pedestrian hybrid beacons did not have a negative effect on pedestrian actions at two out of the three sites. Improvements seem to be relatively more consistent 3 months after the installation of the pedestrian hybrid beacon.

Language: en