Improving the safety of pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure is critical for reducing traffic-related injuries and fatalities. Pedestrian traffic safety risks are heightened in rural contexts. A key area of focus is the protection of pedestrians crossing roadways between intersections and in high-risk areas such as rural to urban transition zones. One way to reduce safety risks for pedestrians is through the use of crossing treatments such as rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs) and pedestrian activated LED-embedded signs (LESs), which use a pedestrian activated beacon to increase drivers’ awareness of pedestrians. Prior research on these treatments leaves open questions about their effectiveness, particularly in rural contexts. Consequently, rural communities have limited guidance for their use. We address this gap by evaluating the effectiveness of RRFBs and LESs in small and rural communities in Vermont using a rigorous before-after observational study design. Our results indicate that RRFBs improve compliance and safety in rural and small community contexts, while LESs have little to no effect on compliance and safety. Our findings hold in both central locations and rural to urban transition zones.

提高行人和骑自行车者基础设施的安全对于减少交通相关伤害和死亡至关重要。农村地区的行人交通安全风险更高。一个重点关注领域是保护十字路口之间以及农村到城市过渡区等高风险地区的行人。降低行人安全风险的一种方法是使用十字路口处理措施，例如矩形快速闪烁信标 (RRFB) 和行人激活 LED 嵌入式标志 (LES)，后者使用行人激活信标来提高驾驶员对行人的认识。先前对这些治疗方法的研究对其有效性留下了悬而未决的问题，特别是在农村地区。因此，农村社区对其使用的指导有限。我们通过使用严格的前后观察研究设计来评估佛蒙特州小型农村社区中 RRFB 和 LES 的有效性，从而解决了这一差距。我们的结果表明，RRFB 提高了农村和小型社区环境中的合规性和安全性，而 LES 对合规性和安全性几乎没有影响。我们的研究结果适用于中心地区和农村到城市的过渡地区。