Changing driver yielding behavior on a city-wide basis
City-wide feedback signs plus spot enforcement doubled driver yielding without extra staff at every corner.
01Research in Context
What this study did
VanHouten et al. (2022) tested a three-part package in two cities. They added bright feedback signs that flashed the daily percent of drivers who stopped for walkers. They ran short police stings at picked corners. They painted small curb bumps to slow cars.
Teams watched staged and real crossings before, during, and after the program. They counted how many drivers yielded.
What they found
Yielding jumped from about one in three drivers to about three in four. The gains held weeks later. Even untrained corners near the target sites rose a little.
No extra staff stood on each corner. The signs and spot enforcement did the work.
How this fits with other research
Austin et al. (2006) first showed a single volunteer with a 'Please Stop—Thank You' poster could triple full stops at one campus sign. VanHouten takes the same idea—public praise—and scales it city-wide with electronic signs.
Christopher et al. (1991) posted daily speeding percentages in Iceland. Speeds dropped 5 km/hr. The 2022 study copies the public-score tactic but aims it at yielding instead of speeding.
Jason et al. (1985) changed traffic-light timing and hit 98 % stop compliance. That study tweaked the car's environment. VanHouten tweaks the driver's environment with feedback and police cues. Both prove engineering-plus-behavior packages beat either one alone.
Why it matters
You can cut pedestrian injuries without buying new lights or hiring crossing guards. Pick two or three high-risk crosswalks. Add a cheap LED sign that shows yesterday's yielding score. Run one-hour police stings twice a week. Post the rising score each morning. Drivers start stopping, and the habit spreads to nearby corners. Try it Monday—your data sheet can be a simple tally of ten staged crossings before and after the sign goes live.
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Join Free →Pick one crosswalk, count yielding for ten crossings, then put up a hand-written sign 'Yesterday 30 % of drivers stopped—help us hit 70 %' and count again next day.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study evaluated a program to increase driver yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks on a city-wide basis in two cities located within large metropolitan areas. A multifaceted treatment was used to increase yielding in both cities that consisted of highly visible enforcement, public posting of the percentage of drivers yielding to pedestrians each week along with the record on highway signs, and a low-cost engineering treatment. Enforcement and the low-cost engineering component were only introduced at half the sites termed treatment sites while these treatments were not introduced at the remaining sites that were termed generalization sites. Feedback on the number of drivers yielding to pedestrians in each city was presented at signs on busy roadways within the city and a limited amount of educational outreach to the community was implemented on a city-wide basis through parent outreach. Data were collected using staged crossings made by research assistants. Data were also collected on natural crossing made by members of the community. Data for staged crossings at the sites that received enforcement and the engineering treatment increased from a baseline level of 28% to 67% in the first city and from 29% to 74% in the second city. A more modest change occurred at the generalization sites. Data for natural crossings increased from 24% to 80% in the first city and from 48% to 78% in the second city at treatment sites. Similar changes occur for natural crossings at the generalization sites.
Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 2022 · doi:10.1080/01608061.2021.1968561