Comparative before-and-after study reveals in-pavement traffic lights reduce pedestrian crashes, indicating substantial safety benefits particularly in school zones.
In-pavement traffic lights are increasingly deployed to assist pedestrians by providing supplementary visual cues at crosswalks, yet empirical evidence on their crash reduction effects remains limited. This study evaluated their safety effectiveness by estimating crash modification factors (CMFs) based on real-world crash data. A before-and-after analysis using the comparison group method was conducted on 20 treated and 20 untreated intersections in Incheon, South Korea, using crash records from 2015 to 2024. Installation was associated with significant crash reductions, yielding CMFs of 0.548 for total crashes and 0.498 for fatal and severe injury crashes. Subgroup-specific CMFs revealed that the largest reduction occurred in school zones (CMF = 0.341), whereas results for non-school zones were statistically insignificant. While conventional intersections showed significant improvements, pedestrian scramble intersections exhibited only marginal benefits, likely reflecting the high baseline safety provided by exclusive pedestrian phasing. These findings suggest that the facility may function as a “child-friendly” countermeasure, compensating for children’s limited visual search strategies and impulsive behaviors by providing a visual cue within their lower field of view. A selective installation strategy prioritizing conventional intersections within school zones is therefore recommended to maximize budgetary efficiency.
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Taehun Lee (2026) studied this question.
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