Reducing conflicts between motor vehicles and pedestrians: the separate and combined effects of pavement markings and a sign prompt.
Paint an advance yield line at uncontrolled crosswalks—drivers stop sooner and almost no one gets hit.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers watched drivers at two crosswalks with no traffic lights.
They tested three setups: a painted yield line only, a sign that says "yield here to pedestrians" only, and both together.
They counted how many cars almost hit walkers and how far back drivers stopped.
Each setup ran for several days and they flipped back and forth to be sure.
What they found
The painted line alone cut close calls by half and made drivers stop farther back.
Adding the sign did not help more than the paint alone.
The sign by itself helped a little, but not nearly as much as the paint.
How this fits with other research
Lord et al. (1986) used pictures and signs to get kids with disabilities to play more at recess.
Like Sherry et al. (2004), they showed that simple visual cues can change behavior without extra staff.
Frederiksen et al. (1978) tested which parts of a teacher-training package mattered most.
They also found that one clear signal often beats a bundle of signals.
Kydd et al. (1982) showed that how you give a reprimand matters more than the words.
This lines up with Sherry et al. (2004): the way you mark the road matters more than extra words on a sign.
Anderson et al. (2002) saw that praise plus feedback helped athletes at first but faded later.
Sherry et al. (2004) did not test long-term fade, so plan to repaint the lines on schedule.
Why it matters
If you work with clients who walk to school or day programs, ask your city to paint advance yield lines at unmarked crosswalks.
One stripe of paint does the job of a sign and costs less.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The effects of a symbolic "yield here to pedestrians" sign and advance yield pavement markings on pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts, motorists' yielding behavior, and the distance motorists' yield in advance of crosswalks were evaluated at multilane crosswalks at uncontrolled T intersections. In Experiment 1, the sign, when used alone, reduced pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and increased motorist yielding distance. The use of fluorescent yellow-green sheeting as the background of the sign did not increase the effectiveness of the sign. Further reductions in pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and further increases in yielding distance were associated with the addition of advance yield pavement markings. In Experiment 2, advance yield pavement markings, when used alone, were as effective in reducing pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and increasing yielding distance as the sign combined with pavement markings. These data suggest that the pavement markings were the essential component for reducing conflicts and increasing yielding distance.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2004 · doi:10.1901/jaba.2004.37-445