Feelgood Phony Fixes for Pedestrians, GR Edition

[XLFD]

On September 11, 2017 the City of Grand Rapids began the first phase of a multiyear pedestrian safety campaign aimed at increasing awareness about pedestrian safety laws and decreasing the number of pedestrian-involved crashes and fatalities.  This phase was funded by a $120,000 grant from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.

The initial phase featured high-visibility enforcement zones at up to 21 intersections. Officers did not issue tickets but observed both pedestrians and drivers in order to give instructions, if necessary.  GR area residents were surveyed about their awareness and perception of pedestrian-safety laws.

On October 2, GR officials announced that in the first two weeks of their pedestrian safety campaign, Grand Rapids police stopped 2,077 vehicles in nine different parts of the city providing warnings and information to drivers about pedestrian safety rules.  Those officials deemed the initial phase of the campaign successful due to the number of motorists stopped. 

They had also surveyed 376 residents at the time.  Sixty percent of the respondents thought the City's sidewalks, streetlights, and crosswalks were adequate.  Thirty percent believed pedestrians should walk with the flow of traffic, contrary to what is advised and lawful.

As a result of these studies and surveys, the City of Grand Rapids announced this week a new ordinance passed that requires drivers to stop for pedestrians at all crosswalks.  It announces:  "The previous City ordinance required vehicle operators to simply “yield” the right of way instead of coming to a complete stop. The new ordinance calls on motorists to fully stop for pedestrians at marked and unmarked crosswalks."

Frankly, with all of my research into traffic law and customs, I cannot figure out what the difference between yielding to a pedestrian at a crosswalk and stopping for them.  Aren't they the same?  On p. 74 of the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices it tells us what a Yield sign means:  "Vehicles controlled by a YIELD sign need to slow down or stop when necessary to avoid interfering with conflicting traffic." 

For a slow-moving pedestrian crossing in front of you, yielding would amount to stopping until they have made it past the intersection.  The new law doesn't really add anything, worse, it adds extra confusion and uncertainty as some motor traffic will feel they need to stop immediately rather than naturally slowing down, leading to more accidents.  

Yet some 9 states and the District of Columbia (DC) have passed state laws where cars need to stop, rather than yield at crosswalks where pedestrians are present.  A review of the pedestrian fatality rates in those states show that 5 of the 9 states are in the top 20 of highest pedestrian fatality rates states.  If DC was a state, it would be 6 of these 10 states in the top 20.

The GR memo adds that on the local scale:   "Most recently, Traverse City in 2011 passed an ordinance requiring drivers to halt their vehicles for pedestrians in marked and posted crosswalks, followed by a public education and enforcement campaign that began in 2014." 

A review of the Michigan State Police Annual Traffic Crash stats since 2007 which includes pedestrian fatality/injury data by county shows the effectiveness of the efforts in Traverse City so far in reducing these deaths:

Year              Grand Traverse Co. Ped Deaths/crashes      Kent Co. Ped Deaths/crashes

2016                2/21                                                          6/211

2015                0/12                                                          13/228

2014                3/20                                                          7/191

2013                2/13                                                          10/165

2012                1/20                                                          3/206

2011                2/13                                                          6/156

2010                2/16                                                          11/166

2009                1/11                                                          6/139

2008                1/15                                                          4/159

2007                1/19                                                          7/173

Being that TC didn't implement the policy until 2012, we have the data for five years before and after the implementation of the 'stop' policy over the 'yield' policy.  The yield policy had 7 deaths and 74 crashes over its last 5 years, the stop policy had 8 deaths and 86 crashes over its duration.  Fatalities and crashes followed the national trend even with the policy of stopping.

So despite their being little empirical evidence that changing the local law will have any effect for pedestrian safety, the GR city council and mayor puff out their chest and feel they did something good after going through that $120,000 grant.  The stats do show that the GR pedestrian death problem is getting worse over those same five year time periods, but it amounts to effectively only one extra pedestrian death per year.

The national rise is often linked to the idea that people are doing more walking and both drivers and walkers are more distracted than ever.  Drivers texting and joggers with headphones are going to exist for awhile, subtly and meaninglessly changing the law isn't likely to make a difference, public education will, and you don't need the GR police stopping you to remind you of what 'every driver must know', that should be obvious to anybody able to pass a driving test.

Let's think of better ways to do things to make things safer on the road.  For example, in a Western Michigan University study, the researchers examined the effects of two pedestrian prompts, a raised hand and extended arm, on motorist yielding at uncontrolled crosswalks. The two prompts were quite effective at increasing yielding by cars to pedestrians wanting to enter the crosswalk.

Think about it, drivers usually see but aren't always sure what that pedestrian is planning to do, pedestrians out of frustration in crossing may enter the roadway before it's prudent to.  Why not adopt pedestrian hand signs for safety in crossing these crosswalks?  Maybe because it doesn't take so much grant money to implement.