Visually Impaired Safety
Funding Source: Safer Sim
Title: Visually Impaired Pedestrian Safety at Roundabout and Midblock Crossings
Date:
Status: Current
Summary: Pedestrians and in particular disabled pedestrians are the most vulnerable users of transportation systems. Safety concerns increase at crosswalks of alternative intersection types (e.g., roundabouts) or midblock crosswalks, which are more complicated environments for visually impaired pedestrians. Existing research has focused on investigating pedestrian (both sighted and visually impaired) gap acceptance behavior near roundabouts, or has investigated the impact of signalization treatments for pedestrians on roundabout operations. No study has investigated the compliance level of drivers at roundabout or midblock crossings under various signage types. The objective of this research is to investigate driver compliance to various types of signage for roundabout and midblock crossings. The particular focus is on signs targeted to improve safety of visually impaired pedestrians. The study will investigate the correlation between different sings and levels of driver compliance as it pertains to yielding to visually impaired pedestrians that are waiting at roundabout crossings. This research is not limited to visually impaired pedestrians but it could be extended to include any type of disabled users.
