Effectiveness of the Dwell-on-Red Signal Treatment to Improve Pedestrian Safety During High-Alcohol Hours

The Dwell-on-Red (DoR) signal treatment aims to reduce the number and severity of pedestrian-vehicle crashes that occur during high-alcohol hours (HAH) at signalised intersections. The treatment involves reverting to an all-red phase when there is no traffic demand during late evening and early morning. This causes vehicles to slow down or stop thereby reducing average speeds on intersection approaches. Lower speed is known to be beneficial to traffic safety particularly for vulnerable road-users. DoR was trialled at a metropolitan intersection in Melbourne. An observational study was carried out at this intersection and revealed a number of serious safety problems during late evening hours. As part of the evaluation of effectiveness speed and flow data were collected using detectors placed 10 and 50 metres upstream of the stop-line. The treatment was found to bring about a significant reduction in average speed at both detector positions. Significant changes were also found in the proportions of vehicles travelling at less than or equal to 30 km/h and greater than 50 km/h at the 10 metre detector position, and for speeds greater than 50 km/h at the 50 metre detector position. These findings indicate a potential reduction in fatal and serious injury risk. While DoR has a minimal impact on traffic performance, its effectiveness was found to be heavily dependent on traffic-flow. This aspect has an important bearing on future applications.