Bollards and rubber curbs that prevent drivers from cutting across intersections at a diagonal can make streets safer for pedestrians, according to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
Such “centerline hardening” forces drivers to turn more slowly at close
to a right angle by blocking the diagonal path through the crosswalk. In
Washington, D.C., the infrastructure changes reduced the number of
times drivers had to swerve or brake suddenly or pedestrians had to
dodge out of the way by 70%, said IIHS Senior Research Transportation
Engineer Wen Hu, the author of the paper.
The calming infrastructure also resulted in a reduction in average left-turn speeds and decreased the odds that drivers made the turn at speeds exceeding 15 mph.