A COMPARISON OF GATEWAY IN-STREET SIGN CONFIGURATION TO OTHER DRIVER PROMPTS TO INCREASE YIELDING TO PEDESTRIANS AT CROSSWALKS

Increasing motorists' yielding of the right of way to pedestrians in crosswalks reduces the number of collisions between motorists and pedestrians. In this study we examined a gateway in-street sign configuration (1 in-street sign installed between the 2 travel lanes in each direction, and 1 on both edges of the roadway in each direction) on multilane roads. The first experiment compared the efficacy of adding multiple in-street signs used in a gateway configuration with a single sign between the 2 travel lanes in each direction. The second experiment compared the gateway in-street sign configuration with a more expensive pedestrian hybrid beacon. The third experiment compared the gateway in-street sign configuration with the more expensive rectangular rapid flashing beacon. The results demonstrated that the gateway in-street sign configuration produced very high levels of driver yielding, and that it was as effective as the 2 more expensive treatments.