01626298

Component

Pedestrian countdown signals (PCSs) are viable traffic control devices that assist pedestrians to cross intersections safely. Despite the fact that PCSs are meant for pedestrians, they also have an impact on driver behavior at intersections. This study focuses on evaluation of safety effectiveness of PCSs to drivers in the cities of Jacksonville and Gainesville, in Florida. A before-after study with empirical Bayes method was used in analyzing the vehicle crash data for the two cities, state maintained intersections with PCSs. Prior to establishing Crash Modification Factors (CMFs), full safety performance functions for different crash types and severities were estimated using the negative binomial regression model. From the predicted crash counts, the CMFs were established for distinctive categories of crashes based on crash severity types. The findings indicated that installing PCSs revealed a significant improvement of driver’s safety by 8.8% reduction in total crashes, 4.8% reduction in fatal and injury crashes, and 7.1% reduction in property damage only crashes. In addition, rear-end crashes were observed to be reduced by 8.0% whereas a 4.6% reduction in angle crashes was observed. Also, discussed in this study, are the crash modification functions (CMFunctions) showing the relationship between the developed CMFs and average daily traffic volume in the major street at the intersection were developed. In summary, the results suggest usefulness of PCSs for drivers.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB25 Standing Committee on Highway Safety Performance.

01618707

17-05178

English

14p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References (22) ; Tables

Behavior; Crosswalks; Drivers; Signalized intersections; Traffic control devices

Countdown timers

Gainesville (Florida); Jacksonville (Florida)

Highways; Safety and Human Factors

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-05178

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 12:01PM