A within-subject design of comparison of waiting time of pedestrians before crossing three successive road crossings

This study is a partial replication of the work of Hamed (2001) who found a negative correlation between waiting time of pedestrians before crossing the first and the second stage of a road divided by an island. The innovation of the current study is an addition of testing the waiting time before crossing a third successive crosswalk. The research is based on examining the correlation between the waiting times of pedestrians before each stage of crossing a triple-crossing. The research was conducted in two different types of three successive crossings: (1) with a narrow or (2) with a wide refuge island dividing between the two parts of the main road. We hypothesized that in a narrow island condition the correlation between the waiting time of the first and the second crossings will be negative; a finding that would have replicated Hamed’s finding. However, in a wide island condition, so that the two-stage crossing will be perceived by the pedestrian as two separate units, the correlation between the waiting time in the first and the second crossings would be positive. More than 750 people (of which 54% were female) were observed crossing junctions with a triple-stage crossings in three different locations in the center of Israel (two with wide islands and one with a narrow island). The waiting time before crossing each part of the road was measured by two experienced observers. The mean waiting time beyond individual differences was 6.00, 5.76 and 0.79 s at the first, second and third crossings respectively. Our results are not in line with those of Hamed (2001). At the junction with the narrow island no correlation between the waiting time of the first and the second crossing was found. A positive correlation has been found between the waiting time of the first and the second crossing in the condition of the wide refuge island. In all locations a positive correlation has been found between the waiting times at the second and third crossings. These findings lead to an optional explanation that the width of the refuge island determines the way in which the pedestrian perceives the task of crossing two-stage crossings. These findings support a possible explanation by a newly suggested model – Renewed Patience Model. The implications of the research and other methodological issues are discussed.

► We examined waiting times in three stages crosswalks divided by an island.
► Waiting time was not correlated for 1st and 2nd crossings with narrow islands.
► Waiting time was positively correlated for 1st and 2nd crossings with wide islands.
► Waiting time was positively correlated for 2nd and 3rd crossing for all island widths.