April 10, 2020—Bollards and rubber curbs that prevent drivers from cutting across intersections at a diagonal can make streets safer for pedestrians, reported IIHS. It forces drivers to turn more slowly at close to a right angle by blocking the diagonal path through the crosswalk.
The infrastructure changes were implemented in Washington, D.C., and as a result, they reduced the number of times drivers had to swerve or brake suddenly or pedestrians had to dodge out of the way by 70 percent.
A little more than half of all crashes involving pedestrians took place at intersections in 2018, resulting in more than 6,700 serious injuries to pedestrians and more than 1,500 pedestrian fatalities, according to the report.
A vehicle's speed in a pedestrian crash is correlated with the risk of serious injury. Left-turning vehicles don't travel as fast as those going straight, which account for more than half of all pedestrian fatalities at intersections.
