Do motorists react differently at crosswalks when they see minority pedestrians?
That’s a question a group of university researchers, including one from the University of Arizona, sought to answer.
Initially, at least, it seems the answer could be yes.
“In this controlled field experiment, drivers were less likely to stop for Black pedestrians than for White pedestrians,” Portland State University professors Tara Goddard, Kimberly Barsamian Kahn and UA professor Arlie Adkins wrote in the study, “Racial Bias in Driver Yielding Behavior at Crosswalks.”
The study found that more than twice the number of drivers continued through the intersection when a black pedestrian was waiting to cross versus when a white pedestrian waited.
In an effort to find if implicit bias alters driver behavior, the researchers had three white male subjects and three black male subjects pose as pedestrians seeking to cross at an unsignalized intersection in downtown Portland, Oregon.
The subjects were of similar age and build and were identically dressed. Each approached the intersection individually and waited for drivers to allow them to cross.
The white men experienced less waiting time than the black men, who waited about 32 percent longer.
The study includes analyses from 88 such trial crossings.
Information about the drivers was not noted in the study.
Nor was an indication that explicit racism was the cause. Rather, the study considers implicit bias as the possible reason for the disparity in driver behavior.
The study makes for interesting academic reading and has helped the authors to score a $30,000 National Institute for Transportation and Community grant to expand the research and examine gender bias.
It’s also of interest locally because the city of Tucson seems to have a nagging problem of pedestrian-related incidents and, sadly, deaths.
On Thursday night, a pedestrian was killed after a car struck him while he was crossing West Valencia Road near South 12th Avenue.
Implicit or any other kind of bias doesn’t appear have been an issue in the tragedy: The pedestrian was not in a crosswalk when he stepped down from a median and the car struck him.
That’s the 12th pedestrian to die on city streets this year, double the number from all of last year.
Tucson Police Sgt. Pete Dugan said it’s difficult to say why the number of pedestrian fatalities has increased this year.
“It’s kind of a mix,” Dugan said. Issues like distracted or impaired driving have played roles in some of the fatalities, Dugan said. But the same can be said of the pedestrians.
An Arizona Daily Star investigation last year found that of the 25 pedestrians killed on streets throughout Pima County in 2013, 16 were not in a crosswalk and 11 were impaired by drug or alcohol use.
Only one of the drivers was impaired. A few others were distracted, using cellphones, most likely.
No one wants to lay blame on the victims in these tragedies, but the data would suggest pedestrian behavior plays a big part in many of these incidents.
It’s a rare day when Tucson drivers don’t see pedestrians standing in medians or center lanes waiting for a break in traffic to cross the street.
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis report on pedestrian accidents released earlier this year shows such accidents are a problem nationwide, with more than 4,700 deaths in 2013.
That report shows that 34 percent of pedestrians who died nationwide in 2013 had blood-alcohol levels of at least 0.08. That’s the level at which most states consider a person too drunk to drive.
That NHTSA report, by the way, showed Arizona as whole was the sixth-highest in the country in terms of pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 resident. The rate in Arizona was 2.28 per 100,000, versus a national average of 1.5.
Both reports highlight the need for drivers and pedestrians to be more responsible.
For drivers, we need to shed our biases and minimize distractions from cell phones, GPS systems, satellite radios and all the other things we have that make us forget what we’re doing.
Pedestrians need to find the safest, most visible places to cross.
Let’s hope 2015 doesn’t turn out to be a record year for pedestrian deaths.
Down the road
The public is invited to attend a Grant Road Improvement Project open house on Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
The meeting, at the Tucson Association of Realtors, 2445 N. Tucson Blvd., will include a brief presentation by the project team at 5:45 p.m.
The improvements to the 5-mile section of Grant Road between Oracle and Swan roads include widening to six lanes with bike lanes, and streetscape and pedestrian improvements to create a state-of-the-art, multi-modal transportation corridor.
The open house gives the public the chance to see designs of the Grant Road Improvement Project.
City staff members also will provide information on the Columbus Wash Drainage Improvement Project. For more information on the Grant Road Improvement Project, call 624-4727 or visit www.grantroad.info
The Arizona Department of Transportation will begin resurfacing a 9-mile stretch of Interstate 8 near Casa Grande today.
The $7.3 million improvement project in Pinal County will extend from Bianco Road to the Interstate 10 junction.
Lane restrictions will be in effect for the duration of the project as well as a 55 mph speed limit through the work zone.
The project is expected to be completed in summer 2016.
