AbstractsEngineering

Pedestrian distraction at roadway crossings has been correlated with a higher risk of pedestrian-vehicle collisions due to the pedestrian's cognitive, visual, and motor attention being drawn to a wide variety of secondary tasks. This study is different from previous field studies of pedestrian midblock crossings in that the geometric layout of the crossing and the adjacent land use were are modeled as factors contributing to the walking speeds of the observed pedestrians. This study focused on pedestrian distraction at midblock crossings located in Corvallis, Albany, and Eugene, Oregon. A combination of digital video and researcher field notes were used to obtain the data at each site. Of the 1407 pedestrians recorded, 1045 complete pedestrians records were used in the analysis. The overall walking speeds observed were between the values of 0.8 ft/s and 12.8 ft/s, with an average overall speed of 4.8 ft/s The input variables (type of distraction, cross walk configuration, zoning type, pedestrian demographics, and compliance rates) obtained through observations, were used to predict the output variable (walking speed). The final model was a multivariate linear regression equation, with the most significant variable being the headphones distraction with an estimate, or multiplicative value, of 1.149.