昂贵的汽车不太可能因为行人而停车

昂贵的汽车不太可能因为行人而停车

The more expensive a car is, the less likely the driver is to stop for a pedestrian who is crossing the road, at least in Las Vegas. The race and sex of the person trying to get across the road may also matter.

车越贵，司机越不可能在过马路的行人面前停车，至少在拉斯维加斯是这样。试图过马路的人的种族和性别也很重要。

Approximately 200,000 Americans are injured or killed by cars each year while walking. Those hurt are disproportionately male and non-white. Understanding why is an important step towards reducing the toll, so Dr Courtney Coughenour of the University of Nevada is searching for explanations. Her results, published in Journal of Transport and Health shed some light on the distribution of victims, but even more on those behind the wheel.

每年大约有20万美国人在步行时被汽车撞死或撞伤。受伤的主要是男性和非白人。了解原因是减少死亡人数的重要一步，因此内华达大学的考特尼·考夫诺尔博士正在寻找原因。她的研究结果发表在《交通与健康杂志》上，对受害者的分布情况有所了解，但对那些开车的人了解更多。

Stephen Luntz

Coughenour recruited four adults to try to cross busy Las Vegas streets at two midblock zebra crossings that are commonly used by school children at other times.

Coughenour招募了四名成年人，试图在两个街区中间的斑马线处穿过繁忙的拉斯维加斯街道，这两个斑马线通常是学生们在其他时间使用的。

Each similarly pedestrian, dressed for visibility, would approach the crossing as a car passed a marker, put one foot on the street to indicate they wished to cross and attempt to make eye contact with the driver. Legally at this point the driver was required to yield, but the pedestrians only actually tried to cross the road if the driver slowed or stopped to make it safe. The efforts were videoed so Coughenour could see whether drivers gave way, and analyze the cars by make and age to gain an estimate of their value.

每一个相似的行人，都穿着显眼的衣服，当一辆汽车经过一个标志时，他们会靠近十字路口，把一只脚放在街上，表明他们想要过马路，并试图与司机进行眼神交流。从法律上讲，司机必须让路，但行人只有在司机减速或停车以确保安全的情况下才会试图过马路。这些努力都被录了下来，这样Coughenour就可以看到司机们是否会让路，并根据汽车的型号和年龄来分析这些车的价值。

In 72 percent of cases, drivers refused to yield, which is a pretty striking indication of what drivers think of both the law and pedestrians' lives. The proportion was higher for the white and female walkers than for the black and male ones, but the white woman participant was still granted her legally required right of safe passage well less than half the time. Moreover, the camera failed in the Nevada heat, leaving Coughenour with a sample size small enough that neither finding reached statistical significance.

在72%的案例中，司机拒绝让路，这是一个相当惊人的迹象，表明司机对法律和行人生命的看法。白人和女性参与者的比例高于黑人和男性参与者，但白人女性参与者获得法律要求的安全通行权的几率不到一半。此外，摄像机在内华达州的高温下失灵，使得Coughenour的样本量非常小，这两项发现都没有达到统计学意义。

The highlight of the study was that for every $1,000 greater estimated value of the car, the likelihood of yielding dropped 3 percent – a finding that was statistically significant even with the small sample. Coughenour and co-authors acknowledge that without interviewing drivers they can't be definitive about the reasons those driving flashy cars are less likely to give way. However, they speculate: “One potential explanation may be that drivers of higher value cars... felt a sense of superiority over other road users. Similarly, individuals of lower socioeconomic status (SES) may empathize more with the pedestrians.”

这项研究的重点是，每增加1,000美元的汽车估计值，汽车的收益率就会下降3%——即使是在小样本中，这一发现在统计学上也很重要。Coughenour和其他作者承认，在不采访司机的情况下，他们无法确定那些开豪华车的人不太可能让路的原因。然而，他们推测:“一种可能的解释是，高价值汽车的司机……感到比其他道路使用者优越。同样，社会经济地位较低的人可能更同情行人。”

The work combines and confirms a series of previous studies, some of which found American drivers were less likely to give way to black than white pedestrians, while others found wealthier people are consistently more likely to behave unethically when driving.

这项研究综合并证实了之前的一系列研究，其中一些研究发现，美国司机比白人司机更不容易给黑人让路，而另一些研究发现，富有的人在开车时更容易做出不道德的行为。