The impact of pedestrian countdown signals on pedestrian–motor vehicle collisions: a quasi-experimental study

Abstract

ObjectiveTo determine whether pedestrian countdown signals (PCS) reduce pedestrian–motor vehicle collisions in the city of Toronto, Canada.MethodsA quasi-experimental study design was used to evaluate the effect of PCS on the number of pedestrian–motor vehicle collisions in the city of Toronto, from January 2000 to December 2009. Each intersection acted as its own control. We compared the number of pedestrian–motor vehicle collisions per intersection-month before and after the intervention. Stratified models were used to evaluate effect modification by pedestrian age, injury severity and location (urban vs inner suburbs). Poisson regression analysis with repeated measures (generalised estimating equations) was used to estimate the RR and 95% CI.ResultsThe analysis included 9262 pedestrian–motor vehicle collisions at 1965 intersections. The RR of collisions after PCS installation was 1.014 (95% CI 0.958 to 1.073), indicating no statistically significant effect of PCS on collisions. There was no evidence to suggest effect modification between PCS and collisions by age, injury severity or location.ConclusionThe installation of PCS at 1965 signalised intersections in Toronto did not reduce the number of pedestrian–motor vehicle collisions at these intersections.

Estimating Safety Effects of Green-Man Countdown Devices at Signalized Pedestrian Crosswalk Based on Cellular Automata

“…Moreover, it is consistent with some existing studies conducted in the US and Serbia that installation of GMCD reduces the proportion of late starters that start to cross during last few seconds of green-man signal [23,24]. However, the latter finding is contrary to some existing studies conducted in the US and Australia [9,25].…”

The impact of pedestrian countdown signals on pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions: a reanalysis of data from a quasi-experimental study

“…While PCSs appear to have an overall impact in the city of Toronto, it is possible that the effect of PCS is different by city. In our previous work,6 we reported an analysis of the same dataset and did not find a statistically significant effect from the installation of countdown timers 6. In that analysis, all of the intersection time from 2000 to 2006 was treated as uniform ‘preinstallation’ time, whereas the current analysis treats those years as baseline and draws pre–post comparisons within the 2007–2009 time period only.…”

“…In addition, there are considerable differences in vehicle and pedestrian traffic flow and visibility by season, particularly within the winter months. In this paper, we present an updated analysis of the same dataset from Camden et al 6 This reanalysis demonstrates the value of controlling for potential confounders to enhance the interpretation and understanding of the efficacy of PCS installation for injury prevention.…”

“…A previous analysis of the City of Toronto dataset used in this paper with the same senior author, found a null effect of PCSs on the rate of pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions (PMVCs). 6 The previous analysis was performed without controlling for temporal effects or adjusting for seasonality. This was a limitation of the original analysis, given the potential for secular trends within the 10-year data collection period.…”

Impacts of Countdown Timers on Pedestrian Behavior - Case Study in UAE

“…Sex differentiation is found in compliant behavior where men violating the red signal is more often [1], [7], [29], [31]. This violation is also statistical different among age intervals, with younger people committing majority of the offenses [1], [32], [33]. Another study in the city of Jinan, China analyzed the influence of PCT on children at school intersections.…”