Research Pays Off: Safety Effectiveness of the HAWK or Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon

Many roadway crossing treatments are available to address concerns about the safety of pedestrians, but only a few are appropriate for high-speed conditions or for wide crossings.

In the late 1990s, Richard Nassi developed the High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk, or HAWK, pedestrian beacon. The HAWK is designed to assist in pedestrian crossings, especially at major arterials with minor street intersections. The HAWK stops vehicles so that pedestrians can cross the roadway and then permits the drivers to proceed as soon as the pedestrians have passed.

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored a study that used a before-and-after, empirical Bayes approach to evaluate the safety effectiveness of the HAWK device. This study showed that the HAWK beacons provided significant reductions in total crashes and in crashes involving pedestrians.

Compared with a traffic signal, the HAWK beacon provides faster service to pedestrians and less delay to motorists—drivers are allowed to proceed on the flashing red after pedestrians have crossed their half of the roadway; moreover, the beacon costs about half as much as a traffic signal. As a result, the pedestrian hybrid beacon is rapidly gaining acceptance.