Crosswalk Psychology II
The earlier poll I mentioned over at Cognitive Daily has concluded, and the results are in.
As Dave Munger writes, vis a vis the above chart: “Overall, the chances of stopping varied a lot from situation to situation. Was there a marked crosswalk? Did the pedestrian appear to be looking at the car? Was she on the left or the right?”
The results seem to conform to what I’ve seen in pedestrian/crosswalk studies — i.e., that drivers are more likely to stop for a marked crosswalk, when the pedestrian is on their side of the road, and when they’re actually in the street, as opposed to standing on the curb. Signalling intention, in short, is a good way to gain right of way; whether the pedestrian was looking at traffic or not looking, interestingly, didn’t seem to tilt strongly either way.
Munger also notes: “One more thing: I’m not sure if the responses to this study truly reflect real-world behavior. Nora and I took the photos for this study on a road where the speed limit was 35. There was quite a bit of traffic, and so we spent a long time standing on the roadside waiting for traffic to clear. Not one driver stopped for Nora.” In other words, the poll respondents’ willingness to stop did not conform to the actual willingness of drivers to stop, which reveals one of the inherent weaknesses of self-reported data in traffic psychology.
For an interesting take on how pedestrians and drivers behave in crosswalks, and their understanding of the actual law (generally less than you might think), see “What They Don’t Know Can Kill Them“, by Meghan Fehlig Mitman, UC Berkeley Traffic Safety Center, and David R. Ragland, UC Berkeley Traffic Safety Center.
The key takeaway: “Results confirm that a substantial level of confusion exists with respect to pedestrian right-of-way laws. This confusion was exacerbated by intersections which had unstriped, or unmarked, crosswalks.”
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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Traffic Psychology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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December 7th, 2008 at 11:09 am
WOW. great stuff! makes me wish for a bigger, more comprehensive study. in my state (PA) pedestrians have the right of way no matter what the road type or markings. and from my own anecdotal data, the question “when do pedestrians have the right of way?” is answered correctly (“always”) 80-85% of the time. yet…go out and watch drivers and you will see results very similar to this chart.
December 8th, 2008 at 6:33 am
At 35MPH or 45 MPH posted and those pictures from the driver’s perspective, there is no way any driver could physically stop from that distance. Therefore, the correct answer for all of these photos is no… it is a trick question quiz…
December 8th, 2008 at 9:26 am
What’s missing from this study is impact of traffic lights. I live in a high-density residential urban grid with short block lengths and 4-way stop signs. Generally people will always stop for me, despite the fact that there are no crosswalks. However the area is bisected by a narrow 2-lane street with traffic lights that carries heavy traffic to the beltway – on this street cars will not stop for me under any circumstance except to avoid impact, despite the posted 30mph limit. There are also a few random intersections off the main street that have lights, to the same effect. I think any delicate negotiation between driver and pedestrian goes out the window once the driver knows there is a traffic light up ahead.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Thanks for citing our crosswalk study at UC Berkeley.
I suspect we’re seeing the lower percent stopping responses for the unmarked (“no crosswalk”) situations in the Cognitive Daily study because drivers do not know they have to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians at these locations (they are also legal crosswalks at intersections), just as we found in our study. Based on the responses, drivers are willing to yield more as a courtesy to pedestrians already in the street. This “courtesy” may vary from location to location, by time of day/day of week, etc. However, the law does not vary and neither does the pedestrian’s need to safely cross a street. This study again underscores the need for better education and training on pedestrian safety for both drivers and pedestrians, as well as consistent crosswalk treatment practices. For example, safety studies suggest that marking both crosswalks at this two-lane road would be appropriate and would likely increase driver yielding behavior and reduce confusion.
This study did not touch on two other key issues related to crosswalk safety: traffic speed and number of lanes. Yielding rates and the implications of yielding or not become even more significant as speeds and roadway lanes increase.
December 11th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Remember pedestrian crossing laws vary from state to state. This would also impact the results in a national poll. For instance, in some states pedestrians are not allowed to begin crossing if the driver cannot stop in time.
Sometimes crosswalks are not enough. Crosswalks do not provide gaps in traffic. Yielding behavior is tied directly to travel speed.