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

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5.1 Policy and Planning for Pedestrian Safety A first step, mentioned in several interviews, is to make pedestrian safety a priority, whether for a specific project or for a transportation planning or design agency. To be effective, the priority must be endorsed at the highest levels of the organization. In terms of planning for pedestrian safety, two alternative, complementary approaches have been suggested. In the first approach, opportunities for improving pedestrian safety should be looked for in every project that is underway or planned. A specific instance of this is reviewing all projects in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for capital improvements where pedestrian improvements could and should be included. In a similar vein, as part of the standard review of proposals from developers, the Westchester County Planning Department identifies ways to incorporate pedestrian improvements. For example, a recent Home Depot proposal was changed so that the developer would include a traffic signal and sidewalk to provide access between a bus stop and the store. The other approach is to produce a pedestrian safety plan. FHWA has recently published a guide to assist in developing a plan, How to Develop a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (Zegeer et al., 2006, http://www.walkinginfo.org/pp/howtoguide2006.pdf). Briefly, it incorporates the following eight steps (see the guide for a fuller description of the steps): 1. Define Objectives 2. Identify Locations 3. Select Countermeasures 4. Develop Implementation Strategies 5. Institutionalize Changes to Planning and Design Standards 6. Consider Land Use, Zoning and Site Issues 7. Reinforce Commitments 8. Evaluate Results Most of these steps came up during the interviews. For example, setting goals and objectives, and in fact setting quantifiable targets is important if significant improvements are to be made. The need for better data in order to identify locations is discussed in Section 3.2. The need to coordinate land use planning, zoning decisions, and site design priorities in order to improve pedestrian safety was brought up in different ways in several of the interviews. Evaluating the effectiveness of safety improvements needs to be done rigorously whenever innovative measures are implemented in order to increase our understanding of which countermeasures work. Another technique that is useful both for identifying locations and for identifying countermeasures for specific sites is the site visit or safety audit. Several workshops have been developed to promote this approach. For example, NYMTC recently held a Road Safety Audit, and NYMTC and other MPOs have been conducting a Walkable Community workshops; both of these programs entail visits to sites. Several agencies or collaborations of agencies currently do a similar safety inspection of either recent crash sites or sites identified as in need of improvement through analysis of crash data. NYCDOT has a safety unit that looks at every fatal or likely fatal crash scene to check existing conditions, including for example, traffic controls, markings, signal NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 56
timing and street lighting. New Jersey has a Safety Impact Team made up of representatives of several organizations representing the three Es of engineering, education, and enforcement, such as NJ DOT traffic engineers, NJ Transit, NJ Division of Traffic Safety, American Automobile Association, FHWA, and state and local police. The Safety Impact Team does a three day safety audit of locations identified by analyzing the crash data. The audit is multi-modal, looking at vehicular, pedestrian, bicycle, and bus movements. A pedestrian Prompt List (checklist) may be used during these site visits. There are currently many pedestrian checklists, most of which are designed to facilitate walking (e.g., Walkability Checklist at http://www.walkinginfo.org/cps/checklist.htm) but also include some pedestrian safety items. Additionally there are more comprehensive safety checklists that include pedestrian items, such as those developed by NYSDOT as well as the Road Safety Audit (RSA) checklist. Although it is not pedestrian specific at this time, the RSA is an instrument to assess the safety of a facility. A pedestrian specialist should be part of an RSA team at locations that involve pedestrians. FHWA revised its Road Safety Audit Guideline and the Prompt List. Additional information at FHWA: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/rsa/index.htm. Noting that the revised prompt list does specifically address pedestrian issue, FHWA is currently working on a pedestrian oriented prompt list. Appendix F includes a prompt list compiled from several sources. Another valuable resource for understanding the safety problems at a specific site is to ask people who are at the site on a daily basis, particularly people who live and work in the immediate neighborhood, including community groups, street maintenance crews, and traffic officers who direct traffic at the intersection. Regional or local policy could also be developed considering local input. During the Designing Streets for Pedestrians Safety workshops hosted by NYMTC (NYMTC Workshop, 2006), the attendees participated in a policy change exercise. At the end of two days of pedestrian training and a site visit, the participants were asked to suggest policy changes, which were then ranked by polling the participants. The results from the brainstorming exercise of each workshop are noted below: Long Island Workshop - 9/26/06 • Develop a Pedestrian/Bicycle Master Plan for each municipality with sidewalk and bicycle priorities • Dedicate a percentage of all federal aid to pedestrians and traffic safety • Pool the funding for sidewalks (re: Town of Islip) • Enforce red lights and speed by cameras • Increase police enforcement of existing traffic laws • Connect sidewalks along streets to shopping centers • Establish guidelines for placement of walkways (strong justification for not providing) • Consider a roundabout for any intersection • Place sidewalks further away from travel lanes Westchester Workshop - 9/28/06 • Use pedestrian heads with countdown indications NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 57
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
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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 and 60: pedestrian design. At least one per
Page 61 and 62: Crosswalks need to be more visible.
Page 63: V COUNTERMEASURES AND STRATEGIES Th
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
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ITE (1998) Design and Safety of Ped
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Parsons Brincherhoff Quade & Dougla
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Intentionally left blank. NYMTC Ped
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Intentionally left blank. NYMTC Ped
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NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Interview f
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12. Do you have any strategies or t
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Appendix B: PEDESTRIAN SAFETY CONTA
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New York City Department of Transpo
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Suffolk County Department of Public
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Appendix C: TRAFFIC SAFETY BOARD CO
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Appendix D: ON LINE PEDESTRIAN SAFE
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FARS Query System is an interactive
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Education and Enforcement Counterme
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Appendix E: NEW YORK CITY FATATLIES
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Appendix F: Prompt Lists for Pedest
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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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