Making Walking Safer for Pedestrians
By Elena Meadows
College of Arts and Sciences Staff Writer
“Walking is healthy,” Western Michigan University psychology professor Dr. Ron Van Houten says. “People won’t walk places if it’s not safe.”
Over his 30-year career, he has spent considerable time making walks safer for pedestrians through efforts to make drivers aware of their presence, and making drives safer for car occupants through research into ways to encourage seatbelt use.
Van Houten’s project involvement regarding pedestrians includes:
— Evaluation of a rectangular rapid flashing beacon to get it working and installed. This has a crash modification factor of 0.5: its presence reduces the number of crashes by a half as drivers see it and yield to walkers.
— Advanced yield and stop lines for multi-lane roads, at which drivers in the right line stop 50 feet further back than those in the left lane, allowing drivers in the left lane to see pedestrians that previously would be hidden by stopped right-lane cars.
— Signs that can be placed one on the edge and one on the centerline of a road near a crosswalk to catch drivers’ attention and get them to reduce their speed. When the signs contained no message, traffic slowed down 30 percent; with a message, the figure skyrocketed to 80 percent. “Message is important,” Van Houten said. His studies involve finding ways to reduce the number of signs while maximizing their effectiveness.
— Countdown timers at street crossings. One day he and a student were meeting with a Canadian crossing sign vendor; the pair mentioned how nice it would be to have a countdown for how long it would be before the sign changed to “Walk.” They later noticed the company had come out with signs that counted down how many seconds the “Walk” signal would remain up.
— Having walk signal buttons make a sound when they have been pressed.
“If people see that it works, they are more inclined to wait (to cross),” he said.
Culture change, such as having drivers yield the right-of-way to pedestrians, is important, as is behavior modification.
He tells the story of a school district that had 11 students hit while walking to and from school. One young person was killed.
The district needed to build sidewalks, but a more cost-effective option soon became apparent.
“People were going fast when they dropped off their kids,” he said.
How to remedy that? Get parents to drive the speed limit.
Police began rigorously enforcing the speed limit, giving warnings and flyers to those traveling even a couple miles over.
It made parents aware that they were speeding, and helped change their habits.
Within two years in that district, not one child was hit while en route to or from school.
Van Houten has also done research on ways to encourage seatbelt use. These include cars featuring an eight-second delay in getting out of “park” if the driver is not buckled in, and increased pedal resistance until drivers click that belt.