Places that allow drivers to take a left turn put pedestrians at an "alarming" high risk while crossing the road, the Science Daily reports.
Researchers from the Oregon State University found that turns that allow drivers to take a left, pedestrians are put at a higher level of risk as about 9 percent of the time drivers don't bother to see if anyone is crossing the road.
There is a vast difference between a "protected" left turn and a "permitted" left turn. A protected left turn is when a broad green arrow on the road gives a driver the complete right of way in a left-turn lane. A "permitted" left turn is a turn that a driver usually takes at a signal to avoid traffic. This usually is not a one way street but a small lane.
"Permitted" left turns catch pedestrians off guard most of the time and are a lot more risky than people realize.
"There are far more pedestrian crashes in marked crosswalks than anywhere else on roads, and pedestrians already have a false sense of security," said David Hurwitz, an assistant professor of transportation engineering at Oregon State University. "This study found that one key concern is permitted left turns."
During such left turns, researchers found that drivers mostly focus their attention on the vehicular traffic and the traffic signal rather than any pedestrians crossing the street. They also stated that the heavier the traffic, the lesser the driver focuses on pedestrians.
"In traffic management you always have multiple goals, which sometimes conflict," Hurwitz said. "You want to move traffic as efficiently as possible, because there's a cost to making vehicles wait. You use more fuel, increase emissions and waste people's time. The permitted left turn can help with efficiency. But the safety of the traveling public is also critical. Sometimes the goal of safety has to override the goal of efficiency, and we think this is one of those times."
The findings of this study will be presented this year at the Driving Assessment Conference in New York and the Western District ITE meeting in Arizona.
