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Cancer Answers is hosted by Dr. Anees Chagpar, Associate Professor of Surgical Oncology and Director of The Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and Dr. Francine Foss, Professor of Medical Oncology. The show features a guest cancer specialist who will share the most recent advances in cancer therapy and respond to listeners questions. Myths, facts and advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment are discussed, with a different focus eachweek. Nationally acclaimed specialists in various types of cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment discuss common misconceptions about the disease and respond to questions from the community.Listeners can submit questions to be answered on the program at canceranswers@yale.edu or by leaving a message at (888) 234-4YCC. As a resource, archived programs from 2006 through the present are available in both audio and written versions on the Yale Cancer Center website.

Survey: How Do You Cross a Connecticut Street?

Kat Northern Lights Man
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Creative Commons
Researchers want to know more about how pedestrians behave when facing car traffic.

If you’re at a crosswalk, do you wait for the walk signal to cross to the other side? Or do you just cross when there's no oncoming traffic? What if you’re with other people, or children? 

That’s what researchers at the University of Connecticut and Manchester Community College are asking in a survey they hope to circulate online. 

The results, researchers say, could inform engineers about how to build better crosswalks. 

“If you understand how people actually behave, instead of having an idealistic vision of how they should behave, then it could affect -- and we don’t know; this is speculation -- how they construct those places, so people stay safe,” said Rebecca Townsend of Manchester Community College. 

Townsend, whose field is communication, is leading the project with UConn researchers Dr. Nalini Ravishanker, a statistician, and Dr. John Ivan, a civil engineer. 

Ravishanker and Ivan have been researching highway safety for over a decade. Now, they’re curious to see how social networks will affect pedestrians’ decision-making. 

"Suppose somebody [said] I don’t care, I can cross the road, I can dart across," Ravishanker said. "Maybe, if they were modified by friends or family who discuss things with them, or bring up educational material -- or something in the context of a social network -- is it likely that a person’s crossing behavior be modified?"

Townsend said they hope the survey will spread beyond Connecticut. But some pedestrian habits may also be determined by habit rather than locale. 

“I was driving through Springfield, Massachusetts, right past the scene of a terrible accident, where ayoung girl was killed crossing the street from the library to the parking lot,” Townsend said. “There used to be a crosswalk there. So there’s a history of a crosswalk. And it’s the most direct line. But when the city moved the crosswalk, it didn’t modify everyone’s behavior. So there’s culture involved, but there’s also common practice based on what people expect in a given place.” 

Credit Ryan Caron King / WNPR
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WNPR
Pedestrians cross the street between Downtown New Britain and its CTfastrak station in May 2015.

One part of the survey has participants watch four simulated traffic videos and asks them to identify at what point they would cross the street. 

“It’s up to people to be honest,” Townsend said. “And would there be anything that would affect that. So some people may say: if I’m with a stroller or with children, I would wait for the 'safe to cross' sign to come on. Whereas other people might say: if I’m in a rush, I’ll just go when there’s a break in the cars.”

The survey is open to public participation, and will be ongoing for several months. It will include different rounds to track how it spreads across social networks. 

Ryan Caron King joined Connecticut Public in 2015 as a reporter and video journalist. He was also one of eight reporters on the New England News Collaborative’s launch team, covering regional issues such as immigration, the environment, transportation, and the opioid epidemic.

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