Guidebook on Identification of High Pedestrian Crash Locations

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION

One of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s top priorities is the improvement of pedestrian and bicyclist safety. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) promotes safe, comfortable, and convenient walking for people of all ages and abilities. Part of this effort has been to encourage a data-driven approach to identifying and mitigating safety problems.

An initial step in reducing the frequency of pedestrian crashes is identifying where they are occurring or where there is a concern that they are likely to occur. Several approaches have been used to identify locations where a concern exists for pedestrians. Once locations with a large number of pedestrian crashes or with a safety concern for pedestrians have been identified, appropriate treatments can be selected and installed.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this guidebook is to assist communities in identifying high pedestrian crash locations. The guidebook builds on or complements materials provided in other resources, such as those discussed in the following Resources section. The locations can include points (e.g., intersections or midblock crossings), segments, facilities, and areas.

RESOURCES

FHWA and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) recently sponsored several studies to aid in the identification and prioritization of sites with safety concerns for pedestrians. The materials being developed include the following:

• Guidebook on Identification of High Pedestrian Crash Locations (this document). The objective of this FHWA research is to document methods and examples used to identify or prioritize high pedestrian crash sites. The process of identifying high pedestrian crash locations results in a prioritized list of potential locations on the roadway system that could benefit from safety improvement projects. Using the information gathered as part of this research, the research team developed a best practice guidebook that can assist State and local agencies in identifying high pedestrian crash locations such as intersections (points), segments, facilities, and areas.^(1,3)
• Systemic Pedestrian Safety Analysis Guidebook. As part of NCHRP Project 17-73, a document is being developed to detail the process for conducting systemic safety analyses for pedestrians using analytical techniques to identify pedestrian activities (including behavior), roadway features, and other contextual risk factors, such as land use, that are associated with pedestrian crashes.⁽⁴⁾

Other documents that could be of value in identifying and evaluating pedestrian crash locations include the following:

• Scalable Risk Assessment Methodology. A current FHWA project is developing a process or conceptual framework to be used to estimate exposure at multiple geographic scales. A preliminary synthesis is available.⁽⁵⁾
• Highway Safety Manual (HSM). The HSM presents a variety of methods for quantitatively estimating crash frequency or severity at a variety of locations.⁽²⁾ Volume I provides fundamental information about crashes and the roadway safety process that includes the following suggested steps for conducting a network screening: (1) establish the focus of network screening, (2) identify the network and establish reference population, (3) select network-screening performance measures, (4) select a screening method, and (5) screen and evaluate results.
• Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). Information on the HSIP along with resources related to the HSIP are available on the FHWA website. Per the website:
• The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) is a core Federal-aid program with the purpose to achieve a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads, including non-State-owned roads and roads on tribal land. The HSIP requires a data-driven, strategic approach to improving highway safety on all public roads with a focus on performance.⁽⁶⁾

Resources for prioritizing locations after they are identified are provided in chapter 5 of this document. Once an agency has selected the locations for treatment, several resources are available to assist in countermeasure selection, including, but not limited to, the following:

• The Pedestrian Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System is an online system designed to assist practitioners with the selection of countermeasures. It was updated in 2013 and is available at http://www.pedbikesafe.org/pedsafe/. The online tools provide the user with a list of possible engineering, education, or enforcement treatments to improve pedestrian safety or mobility, or both, based on user input about a specific location.
• As noted on FHWA’s Safety website, “Road Safety Audit (RSA) is the formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent, multidisciplinary team. It qualitatively estimates and reports on potential road safety issues and identifies opportunities for improvements in safety for all road users.”⁽⁷⁾ The website also includes examples of pedestrian road safety audits (RSAs). Pedestrian RSAs should include more details on pedestrian safety issues than traditional RSAs, and available prompt lists help to focus the audit team on key pedestrian safety issues. Audit guidelines and prompt lists are available in Pedestrian Road Safety Audit Guidelines and Prompt Lists.⁽⁸⁾
• Non-Motorized User Safety: A Manual for Local Rural Road Owners presents a process that can be used to evaluate safety of nonmotorized users on noninterstate, local, and rural roads maintained and operated by local agencies.⁽⁹⁾ The document includes a list of resources for addressing nonmotorized safety concerns and information on typical engineering countermeasures that may be used to address nonmotorized safety issues on rural roads.
• A State’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) can identify the State’s key safety needs along with strategies and countermeasures. Additional information on SHSPs is available at https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/shsp/.

PROCESS TO IDENTIFY HIGH PEDESTRIAN CRASH LOCATIONS

Locations with nonmotorized user concerns are not always identified using a typical network-screening process. The greater number of motor vehicle crashes, as compared to pedestrian and bicycle crashes, may mask locations with specific pedestrian concerns. Another concern is that, because an injured pedestrian or bicyclist may seek emergency medical care as quickly as possible, some of these crashes may not be accurately reported (or even reported at all).

The research team contacted several agencies to gather information on how they are identifying high pedestrian crash locations. This information coupled with findings from a review of the literature generated the process shown in figure 1. Following are the steps along with the chapters in which they will be discussed:

1. Select approach (chapter 2).
2. Gather data (chapter 3).
3. Plan assessment (chapter 4).
4. Conduct assessment (chapter 5).
5. Prioritize locations (chapter 6).

In addition to the glossary, this guidebook concludes with supporting materials grouped within the following sections in chapter 7:

• Supplemental Material A—Example of Safety Index. This section provides additional details regarding the index the City of Los Angeles uses.
• Supplemental Material B—Screening Method Examples. This section presents examples of several screening methods.
• Supplemental Material C—Online Maps. This section presents several examples of online maps being produced by numerous city and State transportation departments and other groups to show pedestrian crash data.
• Supplemental Material D—Advice From Previous Studies. This section addresses several previous studies that have documented analyses to identify high crash locations along with different approaches to identify and rank locations.

©Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

Figure 1. Graphic. Steps to identify high pedestrian crash locations.