Expensive car drivers least likely to stop for crossing pedestrians: Study

Drivers on a whole are not all that great at stopping for pedestrians waiting at crosswalks, but those driving expensive car are much less likely to yield for the crossing pedestrians, a new study has found.

Of the 461 cars that researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas examined, only 28 per cent gave way to pedestrians.

It was noticed that the cost of the car was a significant predictor of yielding, with the odds of their likelihood to stop decreasing by 3 per cent per $1,000 increase in the car's value.

"It says that pedestrians are facing some challenges when it comes to safety, and it's really concerning," said lead author and UNLV public health professor Courtney Coughenour.

"Drivers need to be made aware that they legally have to yield. It's hard to say whether they are not yielding because they don't know the laws or because they don't want to yield," Coughenour said. "Further study is needed to examine that. Until then, the bigger thing is driver education."

The study, which analysed video data from an earlier UNLV study, also found that motorists overall yielded less frequently for men and people of colour waiting at mid-block crosswalks than for women and whites.

It is also consistent with findings from similar studies on the topics of driver yielding behaviours associated with social class, race and gender.

The research team said their findings are important to public health, given that pedestrian survivability is low even when struck at low speeds.