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

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Other challenges Some public advocacy groups are perceived to be obstructionists, demanding more or a different type of accommodation for bicycles and pedestrians with no room for compromise, and thus blocking a proposed improvement. The people who support projects seldom come to meetings. Also some segments of the public have misconceptions about pedestrian safety measures that cause them to try to block the implementation of the measures. Merchants in communities have blocked proposals to use traffic calming in the downtown areas, believing that it will reduce customers coming to their stores. Homeowners whose properties back up to a proposed trailway, objected to it, saying they did not want people walking behind their houses; after the trailway was built they were among the major users of it. Some communities do not want sidewalks. They think that sidewalks would detract from a rural or “exclusive” character of the area or would lower property values or attract “undesirables.” Some authority figures (for example, police or transportation agency employees), who should act as role models and set an example of safe pedestrian behavior, instead follow poor walking habits, jaywalking or ignoring pedestrian signals. This is a similar situation to parents and other adults who set a poor example of safe behavior for children. Evaluation of implemented safety measures is often left undone due to limited staff resources; as a result, we do not know how effective many of the measures are or in what situations they work best. It is also hard to measure long-term effectiveness. Another challenge is the new MS4 regulation (from implementation of the Federal Clean Water Act) concerning drainage and the impacts of adding impervious surfaces. Sidewalks are impervious surfaces that can require mitigation in the form of special drainage facilities. This issue has come up on pedestrian facilities within the New York City watershed in Putnam and Westchester Counties and will come up in other areas as MS4 implementation continues. 4.6 Other Issues This section reports the issues that were brought up that do not fit in the categories above. The design of large trucks is a problem for pedestrians for two reasons. Trucks have wider and off-track turning radii, which many pedestrians, particularly children, do not realize (or perhaps think about); a pedestrian may, through ignorance or inattention, stand in an area that is the path of a turning truck. The second problem is that the driver’s sight lines are frequently blocked directly in front of or near the sides and rear of the truck. Again, this problem is more severe for children, both from their lack of knowledge and their shorter height. Trucks may leave the designated truck routes, either because of street blockages causing them to seek a less congested route or due to getting lost. In these cases they end up on narrow residential streets where they are even more dangerous because of higher volumes of pedestrians or children on residential streets. NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 52
Crosswalks need to be more visible. This requires good striping and in some areas, highly visible patterns such as ladders. Striping is frequently lacking at ramps and jug handles. There also needs to be a clear delineation between parking and pedestrian space. Poor lighting was also mentioned as an issue. New York City is currently experimenting with different patterns to determine which are the most visible. Poor lighting was also mentioned as an issue. People waiting to cross the street are hard for drivers to see at night because the waiting areas are not sufficiently illuminated. Bicyclists need to realize the need for reflective markings and/or lights on their bicycles if they ride at night. No one would drive a car at night without lights yet we ride our bikes, a much smaller and less visible vehicle, only with reflectors on the pedals. Pedestrians also need to realize they are less visible at night even in built up areas amid the jumble of headlights, tail lights, illuminated signs, etc. The wearing of lighter colored clothing or something reflective makes people more visible. NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 53
Page 1 and 2:
New York Metropolitan Transportatio
Page 3 and 4:
1. Report No. 2. Government Accessi
Page 5 and 6:
Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1
Page 7 and 8:
Table of Figures 2.1 Ten Year Trend
Page 9 and 10: I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Study Origin an
Page 11 and 12: in the United States; the 2004 data
Page 13 and 14: Table 1.1 Organizations That Were I
Page 15 and 16: II. BACKGROUND ON PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
Page 17 and 18: Figure 2.1 Ten Year Trend in Pedest
Page 19 and 20: Figure 2.3 Historic Trend in Annual
Page 21 and 22: than fatality rates.) The most noti
Page 23 and 24: III. ORGANIZATIONS FOR PEDESTRIAN S
Page 25 and 26: • Updating and creating new stand
Page 27 and 28: The New York State Metropolitan Pla
Page 29 and 30: getting input from people who have
Page 31 and 32: i. 20% of priority crash locations
Page 33 and 34: located by reference marker (the sm
Page 35 and 36: that the proper signage and other t
Page 37 and 38: and funding has been secured to adv
Page 39 and 40: Westchester County and NYSDOT have
Page 41 and 42: programs in each borough. The NYCDO
Page 43 and 44: IV. PEDESTRIAN SAFETY ISSUES IN THE
Page 45 and 46: Drivers: Typical statements about d
Page 47 and 48: • 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: pedestrian design. At least one per
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 and 100: 5.3.3 Educating Local Officials and
Page 101 and 102: • Good planning and organization.
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
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Parsons Brincherhoff Quade & Dougla
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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
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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
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Education and Enforcement Counterme
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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
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pathway provide direct access to wa
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If so, is there a sign that explain
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