Influence of Advanced Placement of the In-Street Sign Gateway on Distance of Yielding from the Crosswalk

Abstract

A multiple-threat accident occurs when a pedestrian attempts to traverse a crosswalk on a multilane road, and the vehicle nearest to the pedestrian yields close to the crosswalk, obscuring the pedestrian’s view of the next lane, and the motorist’s view in the adjacent lane of the pedestrian. This set of circumstances may lead to pedestrians being struck at higher speeds by a vehicle in the adjacent oncoming lane, often resulting in serious injury or a fatality. The present study compared advanced placement of a gateway in-street sign configuration with a gateway deployed at the crosswalk, on two multilane roads. Data were collected using a reversal design, capturing alternating series of data points in each condition, and counterbalancing the order of those conditions. The advanced placement of the sign produced comparable levels of yielding to the crosswalk placement, but produced a large increase in the proportion of yielding 50 ft or further from the crosswalk. On multilane roads, increasing the distance at which vehicles yield from the crosswalk mitigates the sight distance issues that produce multiple-threat accidents, thereby reducing the likelihood of pedestrian fatalities or serious injuries. Advanced placement of the gateway configuration may also take the signs out of the turning radii of larger vehicles at a driveway or intersection, which may improve the longevity of the in-street signs.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Operational Efficiency of Intersections in Arterial Considering Pedestrians Yield Rule

“…ere are two main types of yielding studies, in which one studies yielding behavior and its influencing factors, such as Steven et al studied the factors influencing drivers to yield in front of unsignalized crosswalks by analyzing road and traffic characteristics, including intersection distance, vehicle and pedestrian flow, and travel lanes of test vehicles [11]. Jonathan and Van Houten, Gedafa Daba et al studied the effect of yield signs on yielding behavior of pedestrians and vehicles [12,13]. Schroeder and Rouphail studied the factors associated with yielding behavior of drivers in unsigned crosswalks and developed a yielding prediction model by Logit model [14].…”

Effective Interventions to Reduce Multiple-Threat Conflicts and Improve Pedestrian Safety

“…Finally, one promising intervention is the utilization of in-street pedestrian signs in gateway configurations (e.g., placed on both sides of the street and within the median). When the gateway configuration placements were advanced to 50 ft, similar to advance stop lines, significantly higher yielding was observed at 50 ft relative to a baseline marked crosswalk condition and a gateway placement condition where the placement was at the crosswalk ( 20 ). This provides an alternative intervention to increase the typical yielding distance to the crosswalk and reduce the visual screening effect, which may mitigate the risks contributing to a multiple-threat scenario.…”

Examining generalization of motorist yielding at an adjacent crosswalk with variations of the gateway sign configuration

“…It also has important implications for preventing multiple threat crashes. Multiple threat crashes are a particularly deadly type of collision on multilane roads where the pedestrian's view of the second lane, and a motorist's view of the pedestrian from that lane, are obscured by a vehicle that has yielded close to the crosswalk (Hochmuth & Van Houten, 2018). By increasing the distance that vehicles yield from the crosswalk, the likelihood of this visual obstruction, and the resultant multiple threat crash, is reduced.…”