Heads Up, Phones Down: A Pedestrian Safety Intervention on Distracted Crosswalk Behavior

Journal of Community Health
Erica N BarinHelen Arbogast

Abstract

Cell phone use has been implicated in driver distraction and motor vehicle crashes, and more recently has been associated with distracted pedestrians. There are limited data on interventions aimed at this important public health issue. We hypothesized that the use of a visual intervention near street crossings would decrease the frequency of distracted behaviors of pedestrians. We performed a prospective observational cohort study examining painted sidewalk stencils reading, "Heads Up, Phones Down" as an intervention to decrease cell phone distractions amongst pedestrians. These stenciled messages were placed at a children's hospital, middle school, and high school in Los Angeles County. Anonymous observations of pedestrian distractions (texting, talking on a phone, headphone use, and other) were conducted before, 1 week after, and 4 months after the intervention. Distractions were compared before and after intervention using Chi square tests. A total of 11,533 pedestrians were observed, with 71% children and 29% adults. Total distractions decreased from 23% pre-intervention to 17% 1 week after stencil placement (p < 0.01), but this was not sustained at 4 months (23%, p = 0.4). A sustained decrease was observed only for texting...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 1, 2020·Injury Prevention : Journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention·David C SchwebelRussell Griffin
Jul 16, 2020·Journal of Medical Internet Research·César FernándezJosé Joaquín Mira
Dec 2, 2020·Journal of American College Health : J of ACH·Andrew J PiazzaStuart Usdan
Jun 15, 2021·Accident; Analysis and Prevention·David C SchwebelAnna Johnston

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