Citation

Robertson HD. Transp. Res. Rec. 1977; 629: 19-22.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1977, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The methodology, data analyses and conclusions are presented of a study which addressed 2 problem areas: the display of the pedestrian clearance interval, and the effectiveness of flashing the WALK (W) indication to warn pedestrians that vehicles might be turning through their crosswalk. The experimental conditions were devised to address these problems. The first experiment compared a steady DONT WALK (DW) clearance indication to the standard flashing DONT WALK (FDW) clearance indication. The second experiment was designed to answer the question whether the pedestrian would know what to do if he started on the WALK and the signal changed to DW while he was still on the street; a DONT START (DS) message was used in place of the DW message. The third experiment compared the steady W to the flashing WALK. The study found that: the steady DW clearance display appears to have the same effectiveness as an FDW; DS message offers no improvement over the DW message; FW is not effective in warning about turning vehicles (TV's); there is a need to warn pedestrians of TV's; observance of pedestrian signals varies; and pedestrian behaviors are sensitive enough to the reflect responses to the subtle changes made in this study.