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

• Updating and creating new standards that include pedestrian safety
o Inclusion of pedestrian considerations in their engineering instructions (e.g., EI
04-011: Procedural Requirements for Pedestrian Accommodation) and providing
the Pedestrian Generator Checklist to assist engineers in determining when
accommodation is needed.
o Issuing an EI for Sidewalk Construction and Maintenance for State Highways
o Issuing an EI for Maintenance and Protection of Pedestrian and Bicycle Traffic in
Work Zones
• Working with NYS Department of Health and partners such as Healthy Infrastructure to
create physical environments that support healthy, active lifestyles.
• Addressing the issue of the impaired pedestrian as part of the impaired driving program
• Supporting and encouraging active public outreach and training in pedestrian safety
o Partnership for Walk our Children to School
o Pedestrian Road Shows
o Safety City (a NYCDOT program)
o Walkable Communities Conference
• Developing programs to improve pedestrian safety at intersections and interchanges
o Installation of countdown signals at all new pedestrian signal installations and
retrofits on State highways
o Use of supplementary pedestrian crossing channelization devices (also called inroad
signs – see Section 5.2.5 for description) at unsignalized and mid-block
crossings
o Replacing signalized intersections with roundabouts.
o Providing training to engineers and local highway officials in pedestrian facility
design and traffic calming design and engineering.
• Supporting new legislation
o Yield to pedestrian law. Passed in 2003, the law requires motorists to yield to
pedestrians anywhere in an unsignalized crosswalk.
o Safe Routes to School. The program was incorporated into the Transportation
Law in 2004.
The Comprehensive Highway Safety Plan also calls for updating the 1997 NYS Bicycle and
Pedestrian Master Plan and re-activating the NYS Pedestrian and Bicycle Working Group.
In March 2006, the NYS Highway Design Manual Chapter 18 (Pedestrian Facility Design) was
updated to include many recent engineering practices and countermeasures for pedestrian safety.
NYSDOT has 11 regional offices, including three in the NYMTC region: Region 8, which
covers the lower Hudson Valley including Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester Counties as well
as four other counties (Columbia, Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster) not within the NYMTC region;
Region 10, which covers the Long Island counties of Nassau and Suffolk; and Region 11, which
covers the five counties of New York City. While there are projects in all three regions that
affect pedestrian safety, Region 10 has a program specific to pedestrian issues, a three million
dollar per year grant program for traffic calming and bicycle/pedestrian safety projects on local
roads. In Region 11, most pedestrian safety work is conducted by New York City Department of
Transportation. Although all three regions have a bicycle and pedestrian coordinator,
NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 17