Pedestrian Signal Safety - AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY
Pedestrian Behavior Data
Pedestrian behavior data were collected during the week of March 28, 2005. Due to concerns for
liability, the data were not collected with Portable Archival Traffic History (PATH) systems. Instead,
the data were collected manually in the field. Trained observers were stationed at each intersection,
where they observed pedestrians crossing at the intersection and tallied information about each
pedestrian on a data sheet. This reduced the amount of pedestrians that could be observed at each
intersection because human data collectors were limited in the number of hours a day that they could
observe pedestrian behavior.
Surveys
The project team developed a brief survey to be administered to pedestrians at the study
intersections. The purpose of the survey was to gauge pedestrian understanding and preference for
PCD signals and traditional pedestrian signals (TPS).
Survey administration took approximately 1 minute. Surveys were administered at two PCD
intersections to pedestrians who had completed their crossing at the intersections. The targets of
the survey were pedestrians over 18 years of age. The survey distribution was limited to two hours.
Approximately 50 percent of the people who were approached regarding the survey declined to
participate.
RESULTS
Walking Speeds
The walking speeds of 902 pedestrians were observed at the four intersections. This included 200
pedestrians estimated to be 65 or older based on visual observations. Pedestrian walking speeds
were measured from when they left the curb to when they returned to the curb on the other side of
the street. Pedestrians who left the influence area of the crosswalk (within 2 to 3 feet of the edge
of the crosswalk) during their crossing were not included in the analysis. The mean (average),
50th-percentile (median), and 15th-percentile walking speeds were calculated for both groups of
pedestrians. These values are presented in Table H-2 individually for each intersection’s minor and
major approach. The mean, median, and 15th percentile also are represented collectively for all four
traditional crossings and all four countdown crossings.
213