J. SUPERNAK ET AL.
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fies those pedestrians who committed Entry Violation
(entered on FDW) and were heading for the Exit Viola-
tion if their speed was not adjusted (increased).
Out of 5402 pedestrians studied, 1084 of them (252 on
Broadway and 832 on the Second Avenue) were those
who committed the Entry Violation and were on track to
also commit the Exit Violation.
One hundred and fifty two (152) out of the 252 pede-
strians (60.3%) who made a long crossing across Broad-
way (high volume of auto traffic), and started late
enough to potentially commit Exit Violation, had in-
creased their speed by observing PCS display and com-
pleted their crossing in time before the steady DW indi-
cation.
Potential for speed adjustment was also studied for the
pedestrians on short crossing (Second Avenue). But in
that case, only 77 pedestrians out of 832 (9.3%) who
committed Entry Violation were able to effectively adjust
their speed to avoid Exit Violation and finish their cross-
ing on time. Two reasons were likely responsible for that:
1) light vehicular traffic that made the short crossing ep-
isode look safe even if it is illegal, and 2) problematic
signal design that offered a very short crossing time for
pedestrians who entered on the Flashing Don’t Walk or
even late on the Steady Walk phase.
5.7. Impacts of Other Fa ctors
5.7.1. Effect of Vehicular Traffic
Pedestrian behavior is naturally affected by the vehicular
traffic density. High vo lume of veh icular traffic may lead
into dangerous pedestrian-vehicle conflicts, and reason-
able pedestrians would try to avoid them. This may be
one of the reasons why pedestrians were committing Exit
Violation on the short Second Avenue crossing more
frequently than on the long and busy Broadway crossing .
Videotape analysis clearly revealed that auto traffic was
much more intense on Broadway than on the Second
Avenue. Gaps between consecutive cars were short on
Broadway, potentially discouraging pedestrians from
making risky crossing decisions. But on the Second Ave-
nue, auto traffic was very light with much larger gaps
between consecutive automobiles. Cars were counted on
the Second Avenue to determine time gaps between them
during the pedestria n FDW and DW phases, and revealed
that 41% of auto gaps there were longer than 8 seconds.
This means that almost every second cycle had zero cars
interfering with the pedestrians on that short crossing.
5.7.2. Enforcement Issue
During the three weeks of the videotaping, there was no
indication of any enforcement action against those who
jaywalked. Lack of enforcement may have been a con-
tributing factor to the magnitude of crossing violations at
the study intersection.
5.7.3. Pl atooning
Some pedestrian crossing violations may be caused by
platooning. When a large group of pedestrian is trying to
cross, some pedestrians may actually block other pede-
strians, delay them and potentially contribute to their
crossing violations. However, no episode of pedestrian
platoon-related delay was observed on either Broadway
or Second Avenue crossing.
6. Summary of Findings
1) Pedestrian Countdown Signals (PCS) appear effec-
tive in reducing exit violations where there is a long
crossing with a long Flashing Don’t Walk phase count-
down (the Broadway case in this study). In case of short
crossing with a short FDW phase, they appear to be ra-
ther ineffective (the Second Avenue case in this study).
Auto traffic may also effect the violations among pede-
strians: for the higher volume auto traffic on the long
crossing fewer violations were recorded as compared to
lighter traffic on the short crossing.
2) The exit violations proportions are greatly reduced
on the long crossing over a major arterial (Broadway).
This reduction is much smaller on the short crossing over
a street with a low traffic volume (Second Avenue).
3) PCS system is proved to influence speed adjustment
of pedestrians who can effectively avoid the consequen-
tial exit violation; this is primarily observed on the long
crossing where 2/3 of pedestrians heading for the exit
violation are effectively able to avoid it and exit the in-
tersection timely.
4) Pedestrian population is heterogeneous in term of
its intersection crossing behavior, and proper market
segmentation appears useful in understanding differences
in violation frequencies among various groups of pede-
strians. In downtown San Diego, the groups with the
highest crossing violation rates are runners and bicyclists
as well as older males.
5) Pedestrian violations are more frequent during the
rush hours than outside that period but this difference is
not statistically significant. Pedestrian intersection cross-
ing behavior is consistent from day to day and from week
to week.
6) Pedestrian behavior is affected by multiple factors
such as composition of the population, intersection geo-
metry, traffic intensity and signal design. In order to
properly capture those various effects, multivariate ana-
lysis is useful.
7) Analysis based on videotaping and detailed coding
of the relevant elements of the intersection crossing of
every individual is a tedious but effective procedure to
better understand subtleties of pedestrian intersection
crossing behavi or.
8) More studies of the same kind would be needed to
verify validity of those findings at some other sites, par-