Drivers with expensive cars less likely to stop for pedestrians
Study found the cost of a car was 'a significant predictor of driver yielding'
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If you have an expensive car, you’re probably less likely to stop for pedestrians, a new study has found.
On Wednesday, a study on driver yielding behaviors for pedestrians -- conducted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) -- was published online at ScienceDirect ahead of its March publication in the Journal of Transport & Health.
The study found that the cost of a car was “a significant predictor of driver yielding,” according to a press release.
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The likeliness of a driver stopping for pedestrians waiting at crosswalks decreases by 3 percent for every $1,000 increase in the car’s cost, the study found.
A crosswalk is pictured in Hong Kong. (BMW)
However, all drivers need to work on yielding, according to the report. Only 28 percent of drivers yielded out of 461 cars that were analyzed by researchers.
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"It says that pedestrians are facing some challenges when it comes to safety, and it's really concerning," lead author and UNLV public health professor Courtney Coughenour said in a statement.
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"Drivers need to be made aware that they legally have to yield. It's hard to say whether they're not yielding because they don't know the laws or because they don't want to yield," Coughenour added. "Further study is needed to examine that. Until then, the bigger thing is driver education."
For the study, UNLV researchers used Kelley Blue Book to calculate the cost of each car and video data from a previous UNLV study on driver yielding.
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