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

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Zegeer, Stutts, et al. suggests similar purposes: To increase driver and pedestrian alertness and to introduce engineering interventions. There has been relatively little research on the effectiveness of enforcement in changing behavior. Malenfant and Van Houten (1989; reported in Zegeer, Stutts, et al., 2004) measured large increases in yielding behavior in three Canadian cities employing enforcement complemented with educational outreach and several engineering interventions. Although safety may have been greatly influenced by the engineering interventions, the enforcement component increased yielding behavior. Another study in Seattle (Britt et al., 1995) found little change in motorist behavior as a result of an enforcement campaign in conjunction with a change in the law requiring stopping for pedestrians in a crosswalk; however the authors suggested that an enforcement campaign aimed at a small neighborhood might be more effective than a city-wide program. 5.4.1 Traffic Safety Teams One of the best practices highlighted in the interview process was the NYPD Traffic Stat Program (similar programs are operated in Nassau County and other locations). The teams include the precinct commanders and representatives from the transportation and engineering community, including NYSDOT, NYCDOT, Port Authority police, MTA Bridge and Tunnel Police, and New York City Transit. At monthly meetings, a commander from a precinct with a poor crash record is called to report what he is doing to improve the situation. This encourages innovation and the sharing of ideas among the precincts. The multidiscipline nature of the teams educates the different groups about each other, both what they can do and what measures are infeasible. Other activities include reviewing the scene of crashes, reaching out to the community, visiting classrooms. Since Traffic Stat was started in 1997, traffic fatalities have been reduced from about 600 to 300 per year. Traffic Stat and the traffic safety teams are not directed specifically toward pedestrian safety, but they are powerful tools for addressing all traffic safety issues, and can be directed to pedestrian safety issues. 5.4.2 Enforcement Campaigns Enforcement campaigns may be used to make drivers and pedestrians more aware of existing laws. Some of the illegal behaviors that might benefit from an enforcement campaign include drivers stopping at the stop line at crosswalks, drivers making full stops before making legal right turns on red, jaywalking, trucks stating on the truck routes, and vehicles not parking on sidewalks among other issues. Zegeer, Stutts et al. (2004) suggests the following measures for ensuring the success of an enforcement campaign. NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 92
• Good planning and organization. The characteristics and special needs of the neighborhood should be considered. It also should entail coordinating with the engineers and traffic safety educational groups. • Training of police for right-of-way enforcement. Right-of-Way enforcement differs from other types (e.g., speed, right light). • Support from senior police staff. • Informing of prosecutors and judges. • Media and public support. • Precede citations with warnings. This is particularly important if there is no history of crosswalk right-of-way enforcement. • Start strong and gradually reduce. Enforcement should be very frequent at beginning of the campaign and reduced gradually but sustained over a long period. • Choose locations with higher frequency of poor pedestrian safety behavior. • Provide good engineering measures first. This could include ensuring crosswalks are well marked and signs are up and clearly visible. 5.4.3 New Laws and Regulations Several new laws or changes to existing laws have been suggested. One is the use of No Right Turn on Red in areas with high pedestrian volumes. New York City already has banned the RTOR throughout most of the city. Other jurisdictions should look at where the number of conflicts with pedestrians would be reduced by banning them Another New York City practice that could be expanded to other jurisdictions in the region is Red Light Cameras. The city has recently received permission from the state legislature to expand the number of cameras from 50 to 100, but they are still banned from the rest of the state. A recent evaluation of their effectiveness (Council et al., 2005) indicates that the decrease in right angle crashes due to red light cameras is partly balanced by the increase in rear end crashes, but there is a small positive improvement in safety overall. Since a pedestrian is more likely to be endangered by a vehicle that runs a red light than one that stops too quickly, the impact for pedestrian safety may be greater. New York State authorization to use speed cameras would be beneficial to pedestrian safety also; lowering speeds is often suggested as the one most beneficial change for reducing pedestrian deaths and injuries. New York City has been seeking a law that would require all large commercial trucks to be equipped with cross-over mirrors. These mirrors are commonly used on school buses and increase ability of the drivers of large vehicles to see directly in front to the vehicle. This would be of particular benefit to the safety of children and people in wheelchairs, and again would be beneficial in all parts of the region. Other suggestions for new laws made by Zegeer, Stutts et al. (2004) are: NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 93
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New York Metropolitan Transportatio
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1. Report No. 2. Government Accessi
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Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1
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Table of Figures 2.1 Ten Year Trend
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I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Study Origin an
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in the United States; the 2004 data
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Table 1.1 Organizations That Were I
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II. BACKGROUND ON PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
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Figure 2.1 Ten Year Trend in Pedest
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Figure 2.3 Historic Trend in Annual
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than fatality rates.) The most noti
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III. ORGANIZATIONS FOR PEDESTRIAN S
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• Updating and creating new stand
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The New York State Metropolitan Pla
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getting input from people who have
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i. 20% of priority crash locations
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located by reference marker (the sm
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that the proper signage and other t
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and funding has been secured to adv
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Westchester County and NYSDOT have
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programs in each borough. The NYCDO
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IV. PEDESTRIAN SAFETY ISSUES IN THE
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Drivers: Typical statements about d
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• Ability to lift foot high decre
Page 49 and 50: The national data indicates that th
Page 51 and 52: Vendors Vendors set up their carts
Page 53 and 54: Table 4.1 Continued Staten Island H
Page 55 and 56: 4.4 Existing Infrastructure and Lan
Page 57 and 58: Some sidewalks are poorly designed
Page 59 and 60: pedestrian design. At least one per
Page 61 and 62: Crosswalks need to be more visible.
Page 63 and 64: V COUNTERMEASURES AND STRATEGIES Th
Page 65 and 66: timing and street lighting. New Jer
Page 67 and 68: Providing Sidewalks: Walking-along-
Page 69 and 70: the pedestrian crash rate was signi
Page 71 and 72: Speed management through engineerin
Page 73 and 74: nearby streets. Whereas Bus-pedestr
Page 75 and 76: and have geometric curvature that e
Page 77 and 78: Roadway narrowings are used to prov
Page 79 and 80: have experienced a maintenance prob
Page 81 and 82: measures with specific geographic a
Page 83 and 84: and 3.0 feet per second more approp
Page 85 and 86: Figure 5.17 Split Phase Cycle Sourc
Page 87 and 88: Combined Automatic and Actuated Sig
Page 89 and 90: 5.2.5 Visibility To insure safety,
Page 91 and 92: Pedestrian Crosswalk Signs: There a
Page 93 and 94: also be placed next to the stop lin
Page 95 and 96: Table 5.5 Crash Reduction Factors f
Page 97 and 98: ask them to act as role models for
Page 99: 5.3.3 Educating Local Officials and
Page 103 and 104: VI. FUNDING Funding for pedestrian
Page 105 and 106: York, Projects are chosen by the NY
Page 107 and 108: NHTSA distributes the Section 402 f
Page 109 and 110: VII. RECOMMENDATIONS As noted in Ch
Page 111 and 112: o Safe Routes to School • NYMTC s
Page 113 and 114: easy to use is residential populati
Page 115 and 116: REFERENCES American Council of the
Page 117 and 118: ITE (1998) Design and Safety of Ped
Page 119 and 120: Parsons Brincherhoff Quade & Dougla
Page 121 and 122: Intentionally left blank. NYMTC Ped
Page 123 and 124: Intentionally left blank. NYMTC Ped
Page 125 and 126: NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Interview f
Page 127 and 128: 12. Do you have any strategies or t
Page 129 and 130: Appendix B: PEDESTRIAN SAFETY CONTA
Page 131 and 132: New York City Department of Transpo
Page 133 and 134: Suffolk County Department of Public
Page 135 and 136: Appendix C: TRAFFIC SAFETY BOARD CO
Page 137 and 138: Appendix D: ON LINE PEDESTRIAN SAFE
Page 139 and 140: FARS Query System is an interactive
Page 141 and 142: Education and Enforcement Counterme
Page 143 and 144: Appendix E: NEW YORK CITY FATATLIES
Page 145 and 146: Appendix F: Prompt Lists for Pedest
Page 147 and 148: Pedestrian Safety Prompt List Gener
Page 149 and 150: pathway provide direct access to wa
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If so, is there a sign that explain
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