Jul 21, 2025 - Health

Pedestrian head starts reduce traffic injuries: study

Maya Goldman

an illustration of a traffic light with a yellow health plus iluminated — Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios

Giving pedestrians a seven-second head start to cross the street ahead of cars can reduce walker injuries by one-third, according to new federally funded research from Columbia University's public health school.

Why it matters: Pedestrian injuries and deaths have increased sharply over the past decade. In 2023, more than 68,000 people were injured in the U.S.

Traffic-related fatalities in the U.S. cost $55 billion in medical and lost work costs in 2018, per the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What they found: Intersections in New York City that gave pedestrians a 7- to 11-second interval before giving cars a green light to turn had a nearly 33% reduction in risk for walker injuries.

Researchers examined a sample of about 6,000 intersections in the city, nearly half of which incorporated pedestrian head starts.
It was the largest such sampling to date, the researchers wrote.

The head starts did best reducing injuries in daylight hours but proved but effective regardless of street characteristics.

Yes, but: The head start strategy didn't have a statistically significant effect on the risk of pedestrian deaths, though raw numbers suggested a reduction in death events.

Additionally, other cities that let pedestrians start crossing before cars typically give walkers only three to seven seconds of lead time.

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Pedestrian head starts reduce traffic injuries: study

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