Evaluating the effectiveness of the pedestrian safety intervention program: Behavioral and observational approach

Pedestrians are considered as the most vulnerable road users. On a nationwide scale, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 6,075 pedestrian fatalities and more than 85,000 pedestrian injuries as a result of traffic crashes in 2017. This study provides national and state pedestrian fatality statistics, a systematic literature review of pedestrian injury severity, observational (video-based) & behavioral (survey-based) evaluation of the Street-Smart NJ pedestrian safety intervention campaign. Street-Smart NJ is a public education, awareness, and behavioral change campaign program that aims to improve pedestrian safety by increasing awareness of pedestrian safety risks and improving compliance with pedestrian and motorist laws. To do so, before and after campaign data was collected, and several statistical analyses were performed accordingly. In terms of the behavioral study, significant improvements in terms of pedestrian behaviors (i.e., crossing against the signal or outside the crosswalk) and driver behaviors (e.g., drivers not stopping for pedestrians in crosswalk) after the Street-Smart NJ campaign was reported. The observational study also showed significant improvements in pedestrian behaviors (i.e., crossing against the signal or outside the crosswalk) and driver behaviors (e.g., drivers not stopping for pedestrians in crosswalk) in most of the study communities following the Street-Smart NJ campaign