The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a report which examines the safety effectiveness of the High Intensity Activated Crosswalk (HAWK) pedestrian beacon through the use of a before-after empirical (Bayesian) evaluation approach.

The report’s conclusions include:

• 29 percent reduction in total crashes, which is statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level.
• 69 percent reduction in pedestrian crashes, which is statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level.
• 15 percent reduction in severe crashes, which is not statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level.

A summary Tech Brief on the report is available, as is the full report.