Understanding Interactions between Drivers and Pedestrian Features at Signalized Intersections

Florida experienced serious pedestrian safety problems and had the highest pedestrian fatality rate in the U.S. from 2008–2011. Pedestrian safety at signalized intersections is the most serious concern due to frequent and severe conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians. Pedestrian features directly related to pedestrian safety are used to increase driver compliance behaviors and reduce vehicle-pedestrian conflicts. This project aimed to explore driver behaviors at signalized intersections with four identified pedestrian features—“STOP HERE ON RED,” “NO TURN ON RED,” “TURNING VEHICLES YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS,” and “RIGHT ON RED ARROW AFTER STOP” signs—by using an innovative safety data source, the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP 2) Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS) data. To improve data processing efficiency, two software tools were developed to assist researchers in data reduction in an automatic and/or semi-automatic manner: (1) the NDS Automatic Video Processing Tool, which automatically detects and tracks pedestrians and traffic signal indications in NDS videos, and (2) the NDS Data Reduction and Analysis Tool, which assists researchers in reviewing and analyzing NDS videos and sensor data. A cross-sectional analysis was used to assess the safety effectiveness of the selected pedestrian features by comparing the observed compliant driver behaviors between two groups: a feature group (with the pedestrian feature) and a control group (without the pedestrian feature). Chi-square tests were used to determine whether the proportional difference of compliant driver behaviors between the two groups was significant. The major findings were the following: (1) The “NO TURN ON RED” sign had the highest rate of compliance (70%), followed by “RIGHT ON RED ARROW AFTER STOP” (67%), “TURNING VEHICLES YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS” (67%), and “STOP HERE ON RED” (55%). (2) Three features—“STOP HERE ON RED,” “NO TURN ON RED,” and “RIGHT ON RED ARROW AFTER STOP” signs—increased the likelihood of compliant behaviors compared to control groups. (3) Drivers had a much higher compliance percentage at the feature sites than at the control sites (67% vs. 29%) when pedestrians were not present at intersections; the difference was statistically significant. (4) Drivers generally were sensitive to pedestrian presence at both the feature sites and the control sites; the compliance percentages for both groups were higher when pedestrians were present than those when pedestrians were absent. (5) Drivers were more likely to comply with the feature at feature sites when pedestrians were present than at control sites (77% vs. 50%); however, there was no evidence to show the difference was statistically significant due to a small sample size. (6) Based on self-evaluation, female drivers were significantly more likely to believe they are easily distracted when driving compared to male drivers; older drivers (age 60+) believe they take significantly fewer risks and are less distracted than other drivers. (7) Female drivers tended to comply more consistently with the feature than male drivers. (8) Midage drivers tended to comply more consistently with the feature than others