Video-Based Analysis of a Smart Lighting Warning System for Pedestrian Safety at Crosswalks

Highlights: What are the main findings? The presence of an integrated lighting warning system near crosswalks significantly increases yielding compliance and allows drivers to respect the stopping distance before a pedestrian crossing. Five-month continuous monitoring of different warning lighting systems proved that the combination of lighting with in-curb fixed LED strips, orange flashing beacons, and dedicated LED lighting reduces drivers’ speed compared to standard street lighting systems. What are the implications of the main findings? Smart lighting systems detecting pedestrians at night, both in urban and suburban areas, are a valid solution to increase safety near pedestrian crossings. These smart systems improve drivers’ vision and significantly reduce the risk of accidents between vehicles and pedestrians. In-curb fixed LED strips and flashing beacons increase driver attention towards pedestrians, thus making drivers stop vehicles at crosswalks, yielding to pedestrians. This study analyses five months of continuous monitoring of different lighting warning systems at a pedestrian crosswalk through video surveillance cameras during nighttime. Three different light signalling systems were installed near a pedestrian crossing to improve the visibility and safety of vulnerable road users: in-curb LED strips, orange flashing beacons, and asymmetric enhanced LED lighting. Seven different lighting configurations of the three systems were studied and compared with standard street lighting. The speed of vehicles for each pedestrian–driver interaction was also evaluated. This was then compared to the speed that vehicles should maintain in order to stop in time and allow pedestrians to cross the road safely. In all of the conditions studied, speeds were lower than those maintained in the five-month presence of standard street lighting (42.96 km/h). The results show that in conditions with dedicated flashing LED lighting, in-curb LED strips, and orange flashing beacons, most drivers (72%) drove at a speed that allowed the vehicle to stop safely compared to standard street lighting (10%). In addition, with this lighting configuration, the majority of vehicles (85%) stopped at pedestrian crossings, while in standard street lighting conditions only 26% of the users stopped to give way to pedestrians.