Crosswalk Field Study

Crosswalk Field Study

Methods

Participants.

The behavior of 152 drivers of vehicles that approached a pedestrian crosswalk of a busy throughway in the San Francisco Bay Area provided the data for study 2.

Procedure

Coding took place from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM on three weekdays in June 2011, at an unprotected but marked crosswalk of a busy one-way road. A coder (blind to the hypotheses of the study) positioned him- or herself near the crosswalk, beyond drivers’ direct line of sight, and recorded whether an approaching vehicle yielded for a pedestrian—a confederate of the study—who was waiting to cross (a photo series depicting the procedure is presented in Fig. 4). Sex of the confederate was alternated. Paralleling study 1, the coder rated the perceived status of an approaching vehicle using its make, age, and physical appearance (1 = low status, 5 = high status; M = 3.22, SD = 0.96).

Coders also noted the vehicle driver’s sex (0 = male, 1 = female; 72 female, 80 male) and age (1 = 16–35 y, 2 = 36–55 y, 3 = 56 y and up; M = 1.66, SD = 0.69); the time of day (M = 3:12 PM, SD = 49 min); whether the driver indicated having seen the pedestrian by directing his or her gaze toward the pedestrian or briefly decelerating (all drivers were coded as having seen the pedestrian); and the sex of the confederate (0 = male, 1 = female; 49 female, 103 male). Finally, coders observed whether the driver yielded the right-of-way or cut off the pedestrian (0 = yield, 1 = cut). According to California Vehicle Code, a driver must yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk. We also held constant several factors that might otherwise confound the results. First, we only coded vehicles in the lane closest to the pedestrian. Second, only vehicles that approached the crosswalk when the confederate was the sole pedestrian were coded. Third, only after a vehicle crossed a designated point on the road 15 m from the crosswalk did the pedestrian enter the beginning of the crosswalk and look toward the oncoming vehicle, thereby signaling his or her intent to cross. Fourth, a vehicle was only coded if there were no other vehicles in front of it when it passed the designated point on the road.

Percentage of drivers who don’t stop by car type.

1 = 0%, 2 = 29%, 3 = 31%, 4 = 44%, 5 = 46%