Effectiveness of Leading Pedestrian Intervals for Pedestrian Safety in New York City

Abstract

AbstractRoad traffic crashes are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in large cities. Cities including New York City (NYC) in the United States (US) have implemented a suite of interventions to reduce road traffic crashes. Leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs) are a low-cost physical environmental intervention premised to reduce vehicle-pedestrian crashes by providing pedestrians a head-start over the turning vehicular traffic. Using a spatial ecological panel design, we assessed the impact of LPIs on the risk of total, non-fatal, and fatal pedestrian injuries in NYC from January 2013 to December 2018. For the 36,102 intersection-years studied and 6,017 intersections (2,883 LPI-treated) included in the study, there were 26,033 total injuries of which 291 were fatal. Significant reductions were observed for total (19.4% [95% CI: 11.8%, 26.4%]) and non-fatal injuries (19.6% [11.9%, 26.5%]) but not for fatal injuries. Multiple sensitivity analyses ensured robustness of findings. LPIs may prove to be an effective intervention to improve pedestrian safety outcomes across cities.