The HAWK beacon device is a pedestrian-activated beacon located on the roadside and on mast arms over the major approaches to an intersection. It was created in Tucson, Arizona and is currently used at more than 60 locations. The HAWK head consists of two red lenses over a single yellow lens and shows a red indication to the motorists when activated which creates gaps for pedestrians to use to cross the major roadway. This paper documents a before-after study of the safety performance of the HAWKs. The evaluations compared the crash prediction for the after period had the treatment not been applied to the observed crash frequency for the after period with the treatment installed using an empirical Bayes method. Crash types examined included all, severe, pedestrian, rear-end, and angle crashes. The evaluation used data for 21 HAWK sites and 71 reference sites and found the following statistical significant changes in intersection related crashes after the HAWK beacon was installed: 28 percent reduction in all crashes and 58 percent reduction in pedestrian crashes.
Samenvatting