1Advance Yield Markings Reduce Motor Vehicle/Pedestrian Conflicts at Multilane Crosswalks with an Uncontrolled Approach by

Motorists yielding to a pedestrians at the crosswalk line can screen the view of the pedestrian crossing in front of them. This places the pedestrian at risk from vehicles approaching in adjacent lanes of travel. The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of advance yield markings and a symbol sign prompting motorists to yield to pedestrians at the markings on pedestrian safety at multilane crosswalks with pedestrian-activated yellow flashing beacons. Motorist and pedestrian behaviors measured throughout the experiment included the occurrence of motor vehicle/pedestrian conflicts that included evasive action; the distance motorists stopped before the crosswalk when yielding to pedestrians; and the percentage of motorists yielding to pedestrians. The introduction of the markings and sign 10 m before the crosswalk increased the distance in advance of the crosswalk that motorists yielded to pedestrians and markedly reduced the percentage of motor vehicle/pedestrian conflicts. Placing markings 15 m and 25 m in advance of the crosswalk produced similar benefits, demonstrating that treatment effects can be produced over a wide range of values. 3Crosswalks on streets with multilane uncontrolled approaches are often associate