AN EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PEDESTRIAN COUNTDOWN SIGNALS

Pedestrian countdown signals are being increasingly deployed in urban areas to enhance pedestrian safety at signalized intersections. However, the literature documents few efforts to evaluate their effectiveness and to support the installation of the countdown signals. The focus of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of pedestrian countdown signals to enhance safety in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Ten sites with countdown signals were selected for this research. Additionally, 4 sites without pedestrian countdown signals were selected to compare the data collected at sites with pedestrian countdown signals. The sites were located in locations with different land-use characteristics. Data were collected at each site manually and using video data collection techniques. Data collection day was selected based on the characteristics of the sites and land use in their proximity. Data collected at each site include pedestrian volumes, percent of pedestrians who started crossing the street during different phases of pedestrian signal (walk, don't walk, and flashing don't walk), percent of pedestrians who started crossing the street during the flashing don't phase and were trapped in the middle of the street, and, percent of pedestrians yielding to motorists. Pedestrians were interviewed to study their understanding of aspects such as the meaning of flashing don't sign, the meaning of time on the countdown signal, if the countdown timer should start with flashing don't or with the walk phase, and if they think that the countdown signals will enhance safety. Results obtained from the data collection and interview efforts show that countdown signals are effective in enhancing pedestrian safety.