Study: Drivers are jerks to pedestrians, but rich drivers are the worst

If you are a pedestrian, you know one thing: Drivers aren’t usually your friend.

Even within the designated white lines, getting across a busy street can be a monster task against those behind the wheel.

Well, researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, set out to see just how nice drivers are to pedestrians. The results? Not very.

Drivers yielded to pedestrians attempting to use a crosswalk just 31% of the time — and that was for female and white participants. For men and non-white pedestrians, it was worse — 24% and 25% respectively. The average of all 461 cars in the study found that only 27.89% yielded.

Not only that, but researchers found the more expensive a driver’s car was, the less likely they would yield to a pedestrian. “The cost of car was a significant predictor of driver yielding,” the study said. They found the odds of yielding decreased about 3% for every $1,000 the car’s value increased.

Their new study has been released in the March issue of Journal of Transport & Health.

Researchers took to the streets of Las Vegas on a Saturday and Sunday between 10 a.m. and noon in June 2016. They had four different people — one white and one black female and one white and one black male — approach to cross an intersection in a similar, prescribed manner.

In each instance, the participant would approached the crosswalk, but would not enter the roadway until they were sure that the oncoming vehicle in the nearest lane was going to yield. The participant would attempt to make eye contact with the driver. If they were certain the vehicle would yield, they entered the road on the crosswalk.

Video data of the experiment was used to estimate the value of the vehicles. They examined the make, model, year, and overall condition of each car involved and checked Kelly Blue Book values.

“Given the nature of this study, simply observing yielding behavior without the ability to interview drivers, it is not possible to understand the underlying reason for lack of yielding,” the study report states.

However, the researchers did suggest that “socioeconomic characteristics may play a role.” They said drivers of more expensive cars are likely to have greater wealth, which “enables individuals more control over their life and a greater sense of self-focus” and causes “a sense of superiority over other road users.”