“Crossing signs give you a clear indication of exactly where you should be looking,” LaMondia says. “But with Children At Play signs, you’re always supposed to be watching for children in the roadway. How are you supposed to change your behavior?”
That’s the question many scientists and planners are asking on a broader level. What can be done to stop pedestrian fatalities and what is causing them? It’s clear from the research done to date that lack of sidewalks and poor police enforcement don’t help; speeding motorists and jaywalking pedestrians don’t mix well. “But bad street design, bad engineering, that’s number one,” says Charles Brown, who studies transportation planning and policy at Rutgers University.