Pedestrian and motorists’ actions at pedestrian hybrid beacon sites: findings from a pilot study

Abstract

This paper focuses on an analysis of pedestrian and motorists’ actions at sites with pedestrian hybrid beacons 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.

Keywords:

• pedestrian hybrid beacon
• high-intensity activated crosswalk
• HAWK
• pedestrian
• motorist
• safety
• analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the City of Charlotte Department of Transportation for the financial support and their staff for providing valuable input for this study. The authors would also like to thank, Anusha P. Nujjetty, Rakesh Mora, Venkata R. Duddu, Prasanna R. Kusam, Yashaswi Kotagiri, Mahesh Agurla, Khamar Salma K. Chittoor, Jaya Madhuri Maradapudi, Harini Mangilipally, and S. Sujith B. Mahanthi, former graduate students of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte for their help with data collection and entry.

Disclaimer

The contents of this paper reflect the views of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte or the City of Charlotte Department of Transportation. The author(s) are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein.