Evaluation of Different Curb Extension Treatments for Pedestrian Comfort and Safety at Intersections

Details

• Creators:
  Kumfer, Wesley ; O’Brien, Sarah Worth ; Vann, Mike ; McNeil, Nathan ; Kothuri, Sirisha ; Song, Minju Kim
• Corporate Creators:
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Highway Safety Research Center ; Portland State University. Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC)
• Corporate Contributors:
  District of Columbia. Dept. of Transportation ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Curb Extension Curbs Data Collection Evaluation Pedestrian Movement Pedestrians Pedestrian Safety Surveys Yielding
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DDOT-RDT-26-02
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Washington (District of Columbia)
• Edition:
  Final Report: 2/1/2024-1/31/26
• Corporate Publisher:
  District of Columbia. Dept. of Transportation
• Abstract:
  The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of different kinds of curb extensions in Washington, D.C. on both driver yielding behavior and on pedestrian crossing satisfaction. To explore these questions, we used a mixed methods approach of surveying pedestrians crossing the roads from 47 curb extensions and video data recording of driver yielding behavior at 15 study intersections and 10 control intersections. Both sets of data were analyzed by examining descriptive statistics and logistic regression of pedestrian crossing satisfaction (for the survey data) and driver failure to yield (for the video data). We examined 180 survey responses and found that while pedestrians were more likely to wait in permanent curb extensions than in tactical curb extensions or tactical curb extensions with mural art, pedestrians crossing from tactical curb extensions with mural art reported the greatest crossing satisfaction. After analyzing 223 hours of video data and coding 1,396 events where drivers should have yielded to pedestrians, we found that tactical curb extensions with mural had a statistically significant effect on decreasing the log odds of a driver’s failure to yield. The combined results indicate that tactical curb extensions, including those with mural art, likely meet the needs of pedestrians crossing the roadway compared to permanent or normal crossing locations.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:de8ead616343850bd65ed04193385628d1ea40aa08dafda7c7e57cd4396c0120d09914cdd264fdb1ce7792042e88e250bb1fe4b50d6b0c3180a260880462839c
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/90280/dot_90280_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 7.24 MB ]