In this episode, we discussed a recent JABA article about road safety:
Myers, C., Zane, T., Van Houten, R. and Francisco, V.T. (2022), The effects of pedestrian gestures on driver yielding at crosswalks: A systematic replication. Jnl of Applied Behav Analysis, 55: 572-583. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.905

*Road safety isn't our typical 'go to' when we think of health but actually, it's pretty important when it comes to staying alive!
*I love this as another display of how behaviour analysis isn't just for autism
*Pedestrians are 1.5 times more likely to sustain fatal injuries compared to passengers in vehicles

There are plenty of measures to encourage drivers to keep pedestrians safe, but what can YOU do as a pedestrian?

In this study,  in every condition, the pedestrian placed their right foot inside the crosswalk, made the appropriate gesture according to the condition, and waited for the vehicle to stop completely or slow down and the driver to motion the pedestrian to cross prior to crossing the street.

During Baseline (i.e., no gesture) at Site 1, an average of 5.8% of drivers yielded to pedestrians. Both interventions showed an improvement over Baseline with an average of 16% of drivers yielding to pedestrians during the extended arm condition and 10.8% of drivers yielding to pedestrians during the raised hand condition. Site 2 averaged 15% of motorists yielding during Baseline. Again, both interventions showed an improvement over Baseline with an average of 28% of motorists yielding during extended arm and 39.3% of motorists yielding during raised hand. Site 3 had an average of 26.7% of motorists yielding during Baseline. Both interventions showed improvement over Baseline with 54.9% of drivers yielding during the extended arm condition and 57.2% of drivers yielding during the raised hand condition.

Other factors feed in - time of day, gender, location, speed of driver etc please don't take this to mean you'll always be safe just by raising your hand!

Not exactly ground breaking, but...
It's reflective of many situations we see. We assume we know what's best or right but rarely do we have the data. e.g. clothing worn - we're told to wear bright and reflective clothing but there's no studies into this, it just makes sense
This is where behaviour analysts can help
What else could behavior analysts do here?
Write task analyses for children and older people who are more likely to be in pedestrian traffic accidents
Behaviour skills training
Group level for implementing consequences for stopping safely for pedestrians
The study noted that most vehicles were travelling above the speed limit - this is certainly something BAs could tackle, e.g. average speed limit

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Disclaimer: While we’re both behaviour analysts and qualified in our respective fields, this podcast is for education and information sharing only and should not be taken as personal, medical or behavioral advice or services.