UAB psychology professor says pedestrians should be safe, avoid jaywalking

Stay in the crosswalk, says a UAB prof (photo by Broken Sphere).

BIRMINGHAM,
Alabama
-- A University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) faculty member who studies the
behavior of pedestrians says they should always avoid jaywalking, even if they
think it will save them a few minutes.

"The
time you may save while jaywalking is not worth the risk," UAB psychology
professor David Schwebel told UAB News.
"Plus, it's good for you to walk
farther -- both for safety and for health."

Statistics
from the National Highway Transit Safety Association seem to support his
assertion that jaywalking is dangerous.

In
2010, 4,280 pedestrians were killed, and an estimated 70,000 were injured, in
traffic crashes in the United States.

Seventy-nine
percent of these fatalities occurred when pedestrians did not cross legally at an
intersection.

Schwebel
says his research has shown that when a pedestrian crosses a street illegally, he or she
is "processing a lot of information about traffic all at once: distance, speed,
what drivers will do, how they will behave."

"That's
a lot for the brain to handle," said Schwebel, who noted that the situation is
complicated when people are talking or texting on their cell phones.

When
a pedestrian crosses at an intersection and obeys the traffic signals, "there are
fewer variables," Schwebel said, making the crossing safer and more predictable.

For more news from Birmingham, go to www.al.com/local/birmingham.

Leave a Reply