Evaluation of Effectiveness of Traffic Signs to Enhance Pedestrian Safety

This paper summarizes an evaluation of the effectiveness of traffic signs to improve driver behavior and contribute to enhanced pedestrian safety. Traffic signs considered for evaluation include “turning traffic must yield to pedestrians” sign, advance yield markings with “yield here to pedestrian” sign, and in-roadway knockdown signs. The evaluations are based on field observations of pedestrian and driver behaviors “before” and “after” installation of countermeasures at select locations in Las Vegas, Nevada. The effectiveness of “turning traffic must yield to pedestrians” sign at intersections was evaluated using proportion of pedestrians who looked for turning vehicles, proportion of pedestrians who were in crosswalks during flashing “DON’T WALK” and “DON’T WALK” phases, drivers yielding to pedestrians when turning on red or green, pedestrian delay and vehicle delay as measures of effectiveness. On the other hand, the effectiveness of advance yield markings with “yield here to pedestrian” sign and in-roadway knockdown signs at midblock locations was evaluated using proportion of pedestrians who looked to their left and right before and while crossing, proportion of pedestrians who changed their course of action, proportion of drivers who yielded to pedestrians, the distance from the crosswalk at which drivers yielded to pedestrians, pedestrian delay and vehicle delay as measures of effectiveness. The results obtained generally show an improvement in driver yielding behavior due to installation of the above countermeasures. The findings from this study could be used to enhance pedestrian safety by influencing driver behavior on arterial roads in other cities with similar demographic characteristics and traffic conditions.