Comparing the Effectiveness of various Crosswalk Designs in New York City

Over the years, vehicles have gotten progressively larger, creating a larger risk for pedestrians.,This is also amplified by city infrastructure, which prioritizes vehicular traffic. The purpose of this study was to take certain crosswalk designs, test them, and compare them to the traditional design found across North America. It was hypothesized that the most effective design would be the speed hump. This hypothesis was tested by using the AnyLogic simulation software. A control was set up with a simple crosswalk with crossing lights, along with adding a crosswalk with LED signs and a speed hump later on. A map of New York City was designed and the pedestrians were set up to come at a rate of 175 people per hour, calculated to be 1,533,000 people in the simulated year. Six trials were conducted for each group. Findings show that the speed hump had a 51.9% decrease in pedestrians hit and the LEDs had a 45.6% decrease. The p-value of less than .001 at a 95% confidence level showed that the speed hump was most effective. However, both solutions reduced the number of pedestrians hit significantly compared to the control. Crosswalk design does have an impact on pedestrian safety and a study like this could be used to improve city design guidelines.