A Community-Wide Intervention to Improve Pedestrian Safety: Guidelines for Institutionalizing Large-Scale Behavior Change

An A-B-A reversal design with a long-term follow-up evaluated a community-wide commitment and incentive program to improve pedestrian safety. The campaign encouraged residents of a college community to sign promise cards to use crosswalks when crossing campus roads and to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks when driving. Crosswalk use increased during a 6-week intervention period to 68% (n = 1,718) from a baseline mean of 58% (n = 2,038). Driver-yielding behavior significantly increased throughout the study, from a baseline mean of 23% (n = 979) to a mean of 44% (n = 272) for 2 weeks after the removal of intervention materials and termination of publicity. Observations of crosswalk use and yielding behavior 1 year after the intervention revealed that crosswalk use returned to near baseline levels (61%, n = 1,954), but driver-yielding behavior (53%, n = 602) remained high, substantially above the baseline. Recommendations for institutionalizing pedestrian safety campaigns are offered.