at crossings without traffic controls

Gene Bourquin, Rob Wall, Dona Sauerburger

What conditions cause drivers to yield: vests, flags, and cane, oh my?

Why drivers yield?

Social theories and empirical research indicate that dependency cues influence drivers
Harrell (1993)

Drivers yielded more readily to individuals perceived to be dependent: mothers with a carriage, people thought to have a physical disability, or people who are blind.
(Bake & Reitz, 1978)

What drivers see

Attentional capture: a stimulus that alters attention away from the prevailing focuswhich draw a attention without that persons volition.
(Hughes, Vachon, & Jones, 2005)

Whats in your attention set?

(Mack, Pappas, Silverman, & Gay, 2002)

Inattentional Blindness: the phenomenon when items not expected, not of interest, or not meaningful are not perceived by the visual system.
(Ramachandran & Rogers-Ramachandran, 2005)

Conditions are likely to be noticed and understood when attentional capture is high and inattentional blindness in minimized.

What we knew about drivers yielding

roundabout entry lanes pedestrians standing at the edge of the crosswalk: 36.4% holding a white cane 20% without a cane
(Ashmead, Guth, Wall, Long, and Ponchillia, 2005)

Roundabout exits (higher speeds): 0% yielded with no cane, 9% with a white cane.
(Ashmead, Guth, Wall, Long, and Ponchillia, 2005)

driver yielding improved with a visible long cane or dog guide 15%-32%
(Guth,

Ashmead, Long, Wall, & Ponchillia, 2005)

at a campus midblock crosswalk with no traffic control, drivers yielded about 96% to a cane user
(Guth, Ashmead, Long, Wall, & Ponchillia, 2005)

at uncontrolled and stop-sign-controlled streets (residential/downtown) drivers yielded about 5% of the time to a cane user
(Guth, Ashmead, Long, Wall, & Ponchillia, 2005)

What we did What we found

375 trials

C2

P C1

Control yielding rate: Flag Vest Cane Cane waive Cane waive vest

0.41 0.61 0.49 0.87 0.89 0.91

The main differences seen in yielding were across the crossing conditions

Secondarily, vehicle approach speed most critically impacted yielding

This study, along with previous studies, indicate a general principle that using a cane will improve safety. A long cane is a well-known symbol that reduces inattention blindness through its visibility and meaningfulness.

Mack, A., Pappas, Z., Silverman, M., & Gay, R. (2002). What we see: Inattention and the capture of attention by meaning. Consciousness and Cognition 11 (2002) 488506, 2002(11). Ashmead, D. H., Guth, D., Wall, R. S., Long, R. G., & Ponchillia, P. E. (2005). Street Crossing by Sighted and Blind Pedestrians at a Modern Roundabout. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 131(11), 812-821. Baker, L. D., & Reitz, H. J. (1978). Altruism toward the blind: effects of sex of helper and dependency of victim. Journal of Social Psychology, 104(1), 19. Guth, D., Ashmead, D., Long, R., Wall, R., & Ponchillia., P. (2005). Blind and Sighted Pedestrians' Judgments of Gaps in Traffic at Roundabouts. Human Factors, 47(2), 134(118). Harrell, W. A. (1993). The Impact of Pedestrian Visibility and Assertiveness on Motorist Yielding. [Article]. Journal of Social Psychology, 133(3), 353-360. Hughes, R. W., Vachon, F., & Jones, D. M. (2005). Auditory Attentional Capture During Serial Recall: Violations at Encoding of an Algorithm-Based Neural Model? Journal of Experimental Psychology / Learning, Memory & Cognition, 31(4), 736-749. Ramachandran, V. S., & Rogers-Ramachandran, D. (2005). How Blind Are We? Scientific American Mind, 16(2), 96-95.