Pedestrian crossings are critical points in terms of road safety because they tend to be char-acterized by high accident rates. Pedestrian safety at zebra crossings depends mainly onvehicles speed.In this study the effects of median refuge island and ‘‘Yield here to pedestrians” flashingvertical sign on pedestrian crossing conspicuity were assessed with a before–after analysisof both speed and visual behaviour of drivers approaching to crosswalks. The elements ofthe pedestrian crossing that were more salient and how drivers’ visual behaviour wasrelated to speed were assessed analysing drivers’ eye movements. The intervention signif-icantly increased the fixation time to the zebra markings and the addition of the flashinglight increased conspicuity and fixation time to the vertical sign. The median refuge islandwas glanced by 60.7% of the drivers. Distance of first-fixation of the crosswalk increased by44.7%. Notwithstanding mean and V85 speed parameters were lower after the interven-tion, the effects on crosswalk visual attention were higher than on speed. (Author/publisher)
Abstract