NYMTC Regional Pedestrian Safety Study - New York Metropolitan ...

perceptions of the issue. This project will develop the Pedestrian Safety Plan in collaboration
with the NYMTC members and will be incorporated into the Regional Transportation Plan
(RTP). The Pedestrian Safety Plan will periodically be updated along with the update of the
RTP.
The second product of the study was to be a sourcebook on pedestrian safety strategies and
technologies, based on the research findings reported by state and local agencies and the
literature review of independent research organizations. Instead of creating a separate document,
descriptions of countermeasures for addressing pedestrian safety issues and their effectiveness
are included in Chapter 5. Additionally, Appendix D contains an annotated bibliography of the
best on-line sources of information on pedestrian safety.
The organization of this report, which summarizes the result of the study, is outlined here. The
rest of this chapter discusses the importance of pedestrian safety and describes how the study
was conducted. The second chapter presents statistics on pedestrian safety in the region and
contrasts regional characteristics with national characteristics. The third chapter describes the
governmental and private non-profit organizations that are involved in pedestrian safety in the
NYMTC region. It also includes sections on the state of pedestrian crash data. The fourth
chapter describes the pedestrian safety issues that were identified during the interviews and
public meetings. The fifth chapter describes countermeasures for improving pedestrian safety,
and the sixth chapter is a brief summary of funding sources. The last chapter includes
recommendations for improving pedestrian safety in the region.
1.2 Importance of Pedestrian Safety
The residents of the NYMTC region walk more than those in most other regions of the United
States. According to the Regional Travel – Household Interview Survey, in 1997 about 22
percent of trips in the NYMTC region were made solely by walking. This ranges from a low of
6.4 percent in Long Island to 48.3 percent in Manhattan. (Parsons Brinckerhoff, 2000). To
understand the magnitude of this number, the 2001 National Household Travel Survey indicated
that 8.6 percent of trips nationally were made by walking (BTS, 2003).
Not only do the people in the region rely on walking extensively, but walking is important to the
economy of New York City and many other communities in the region. All retail trips require
walking as at least a part of the access trip. One analysis indicated that over 50 percent of retail
sales are to customers that access the store primarily by walking, indicating the huge impact that
walking has on the regional economy. In addition, tourism is also dependent on walking and is
another important contributor to the regional economy. Additional reasons for attention to
pedestrian safety include the number of people who cannot drive, the fact that other modes
depend on access by walking, and that making roads safer for pedestrians makes them safer for
all modes.
The high proportion of trips by walking means that the pedestrians in the region are exposed to
potential crashes more than in most areas. (Ideally, the rates for pedestrian injuries and fatalities
should be normalized based on the number of walking trips rather than population only.) New
York and New Jersey pedestrian fatalities as a percentage of total traffic fatalities are the highest
NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 2