THE INFLUENCE OF SIGNS AND PAVEMENT MARKINGS ON PEDESTRIAN BEHAVIOR AND CONFLICTS WITH TURNING VEHICLES: RESULTS OF A FIELD EXPERIMENT

Conflicts at intersections between pedestrians and turning vehicles are a frequent source of pedestrian injuries in urban areas. Many conventional efforts to address this problem have produced only limited benefits. A study was conducted to determine the effects of special warning signs and pavement markings designed to encourage or prompt pedestrians to look for turning vehicles before encountering potential conflicts. Pedestrian behavior was observed at signalized intersections before, immediately after, and one year after the special prompts were put in place. The results show increases in the percentage of pedestrians looking for threats from turning traffic and decreases in the number of conflicts between pedestrians and turning vehicles.