Effective Interventions to Reduce Multiple-Threat Conflicts and Improve Pedestrian Safety

When a driver stops for a pedestrian, the pedestrian may be struck by a second driver traveling in the same direction of travel in the next lane, a scenario known as a multiple-threat crash. Prior studies primarily focused on yielding distance as a proxy measure for measuring multiple-threat risk. This paper details a multifaceted high visibility enforcement program with an emphasis on reducing multiple-threat risks to pedestrians, by directly measuring observed multiple-threat passing at unsignalized, marked crosswalks. The objective of the study was to increase driver compliance with crosswalk laws and reduce multiple-threat passing. The second objective of the study was to determine which other factors are predictive of multiple-threat passing rates. At 16 selected sites, coders observed driver behavior with special attention given to any drivers who passed a stopped or yielding vehicle in the same direction of travel. For baseline measurements, multiple-threat passing was observed at 11.86% of crossings. After sustained education, enforcement, and engineering efforts across several months, not only did driver yielding rates improve, but multiple-threat passing declined to 3.17% at the end of the program. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that advance stop lines are directly associated with fewer multiple-threat passes and that higher speeds are associated with more multiple-threat passes. This finding demonstrates the efficacy of this intervention approach not only on increasing yielding for pedestrians but also for reducing the risk of multiple-threat crashes.