Ron Van Houten & J. E. Louis Malenfant (2004).
Effects of a driver enforcement program on yielding to pedestrians.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
37, 351-363.
A driver-yielding enforcement program that included decoy pedestrians, feedback flyers, written
and verbal warnings, and saturation enforcement for a 2-week period was evaluated in the city
of Miami Beach using a multiple baseline design. During baseline, data were collected at
crosswalks along two major corridors. Treatment was introduced first at selected crosswalks
without traffic signals along one corridor. A week later, enforcement was shifted to crosswalks
along the second corridor. Results indicated that the percentage of drivers yielding to pedestrians
increased following the introduction of the enforcement program in each corridor and that these
increases were sustained for a period of a year with minimal additional enforcement. The effects
also generalized somewhat to untreated crosswalks in both corridors, as well as to crosswalks
with traffic signals.
DESCRIPTORS: generalization, pedestrian safety, police enforcement, punishment