(Iowa City) Iowa researchers are investigating how children react to driverless cars in crosswalks. They placed virtual vehicles with a light that changed from red to green. The study found that if children saw the green light in the distance, they would enter the crosswalk. However, things would be different and safer if the car stopped abruptly and the light went from red to green more quickly.
Iowa Researcher Jody Plumert says she’d recommend to driverless car-makers that the signal should come on only when the car comes to a complete stop, not before. Meanwhile, a new law fixes a loophole that left some pedestrians unprotected in a crosswalk.
Luke Hoffman with the Iowa Bicycle Coalition says bikes, wheelchairs, and strollers were left unprotected in a crosswalk, but state law now requires drivers to yield to all pedestrians.
