Evaluation of the impact of pedestrian countdown signals on crossing behavior

The objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of pedestrian countdown signals on crossing behavior at intersections. Data were collected by means of questionnaire and video recording at two signalized intersections: one was with pedestrian countdown signal and the other was with traditional signal. The questionnaire aims to reveal pedestrians' preference to countdown signals. It shows that 91.8% of pedestrians believe that countdown signals are helpful in determining the time to enter crosswalk, and 72.6% of pedestrians think that countdown signals are more comfortable for crossing. To evaluate effects of countdown signals, four measures of effectiveness, that is, proportion of compliers, adventurers, violators, and trapped pedestrians, are applied. Hypothesis testing results show that countdown signals can significantly increase proportions of compliers and reduce proportions of violators and trapped pedestrians compared with traditional signals. However, countdown signals have weak impact on adventurers since many pedestrians do not understand the meaning of flashing signal.