When a pedestrian is crossing a street, drivers must stop and yield according to Minnesota law. However, many drivers disregard this law at road crossings without traffic signals, putting pedestrians at risk for injury or death.
In a new study sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Minnesota Local Road Research Board (LRRB), CTS scholar Raphael Stern, assistant professor with the U of M’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geo- Engineering, explored the factors that influence whether drivers yield to pedestrians.
“Identifying the risk factors for non-yielding behavior and the characteristics that may encourage greater yielding could help local engineers build safer crossings and intersections,” Stern says.
For the study, researchers collected a significant amount of pedestrian crossing data. In fall 2020 and summer 2021, they recorded more than 3,300 crossing events at 18 Minnesota intersections, using custom-built collection units capable of storing about two weeks’ worth of video data. The setup allowed for naturalistic, real-world data collection and direct observation of driver yielding behavior.
Using this data, researchers analyzed statistics to identify the factors that most strongly correlate with driver yielding. Speed was one of those. Vehicles traveling faster than 25 mph were significantly less likely to yield to pedestrians than vehicles traveling slower than 25 mph. Signs also appear to encourage driver yielding: drivers may be twice as likely to yield at intersections where signs are posted. Additionally, lower yielding rates were noted on wider roads and multilane roads.
“We also found that the built environment and land use near pedestrian crossings influences yielding rates,” Stern says. “For example, the presence of restaurants and bars increased yielding, while the presence of multi-family housing was associated with decreased yielding.”
The study findings contradict the common assumption that many pedestrians involved in crashes tried to cross at the “wrong” time or place. Only 4 percent of pedestrians observed in the study began crossing before a sufficient vehicle gap, and more than 35 percent waited to cross even after a gap in traffic.
Based on their findings, researchers made recommendations for local transportation officials to encourage drivers to stop for pedestrians at unsignalized intersections where they want to increase driver yielding. Among the recommendations: consider geometric features of the road; limit road width, including pedestrian crossing markings; add signs at crossings; limit speeds with roadway features; and look at adjacent land-use context.
While many factors that correlated to higher yielding rates—such as number of people in a vehicle, vehicle type, and land use—are beyond the control of transportation agencies, knowing their impacts can ultimately guide designs that encourage it.
“These results confirmed that there are steps we can take to increase the likelihood that drivers will yield to pedestrians—a measure we use as a proxy for safety,” says Hannah Pritchard, MnDOT Office of Transit and Active Transportation principal pedestrian and bicycle engineer. “The most effective interventions likely involve a combination of factors.”
Results of the study will be shared throughout Minnesota and may be included in MnDOT’s Traffic Engineering Manual and other guidance for local agency engineers.
—Megan Tsai, contributing writer
