U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000


Skip to content
Facebook iconYouTube iconTwitter iconFlickr iconLinkedInInstagram

Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations

 
REPORT
This report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information
Back to Publication List        
Publication Number:  FHWA-HRT-19-045    Date:  November 2019
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-19-045
Date: November 2019

 

Safety Evaluation of Pedestrian Countdown Signals

PDF Version (678 KB)

PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader®

FOREWORD

The research documented in this report was conducted as part of the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA's) Evaluation of Low-Cost Safety Improvements Pooled Fund Study (ELCSI-PFS). FHWA established this PFS in 2005 to conduct research on the effectiveness of the safety improvements identified by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program's Report 500 Series as part of the implementation of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' Strategic Highway Safety Plan.(1) The ELCSI-PFS studies provide a crash modification factor and benefit-cost (B/C) economic analysis for each of the targeted safety strategies identified as priorities by the pooled fund member States.

This study evaluated the safety effectiveness of pedestrian countdown signals (PCSs) by conducting a before-after empirical Bayes analysis on data from 115 treated intersections in Charlotte, NC, and 218 treated intersections in Philadelphia, PA. The study results showed that after the implementation of PCSs, pedestrian crashes decreased by 9 percent, total crashes decreased by 8 percent, and rear-end crashes decreased by 12 percent. All these reductions were statistically significant. The economic analysis revealed a B/C ratio of 23, with a low of 13 and a high of 32. This report will benefit safety and traffic engineers and safety planners by providing greater insight into pedestrian safety.

Brian P. Cronin, P.E.
Director, Office of Safety and Operations
Research and Development

Notice

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document.

The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.

Quality Assurance Statement

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality information to serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.

Technical Report Documentation Page
1. Report No.
FHWA-HRT-19-045
2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient’s Catalog No.
4. Title and Subtitle
Safety Evaluation of Pedestrian Countdown Signals
5. Report Date
November 2019
6. Performing Organization Code
7. Author(s)
Raghavan Srinivasan (ORCID: 0000-0002-3097-5154), Bo Lan (ORCID: 0000-0002-7998-7252), Daniel Carter (ORCID: 0000-0001-6572-6548), Sarah Smith, Kari Signor, and Bhagwant Persaud (ORCID: 0000-0002-8404-9236)
8. Performing Organization Report No.
9. Performing Organization Name and Address

VHB
8300 Boone Blvd., Ste. 700
Vienna, VA 22182-2626


Highway Safety Research Center
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3430

10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS)
11. Contract or Grant No.
DTFH61-13-D-0001
12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
Office of Safety Research and Development
Federal Highway Administration
6300 Georgetown Pike
McLean, VA 22101-2296
13. Type of Report and Period Covered
Safety Evaluation, June 2017–April 2019
14. Sponsoring Agency Code
HRDS-20
15. Supplementary Notes
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety Research and Development managed this study under the Development of Crash Modification Factors Program. The FHWA Office of Safety Research and Development program's Task Manager was Roya Amjadi (HRDS-20, ORCID: 0000-0001-7672-8485).
16. Abstract

A before-after empirical Bayes analysis was performed using data from 115 treated intersections in Charlotte, NC, and 218 treated intersections in Philadelphia, PA, to evaluate the safety effects of pedestrian countdown signals (PCSs). Additionally, the evaluation included 136 reference intersections in Charlotte, NC, and 597 reference intersections in Philadelphia, PA. The project team also investigated the possibility of using data from two additional cities, but the data from those cities could not be used in this evaluation because of unknown PCS installation dates, lack of pedestrian volume, and crash data reliability concerns.


Following the implementation of PCSs, total crashes decreased by approximately 8 percent, and rear-end crashes decreased by approximately 12 percent. These reductions were statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level. Pedestrian crashes decreased by about 9 percent, and this reduction was statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level. The economic analysis revealed a benefit-cost ratio of 23, with a low of 13 and a high of 32.

17. Key Words
Safety improvements, safety evaluations, empirical Bayesian
18. Distribution Statement
No restrictions. This document is available to the public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161.
http://www.ntis.gov
19. Security Classif. (of this report)
Unclassified
20. Security Classif. (of this page)
Unclassified
21. No. of Pages
48
22. Price
N/A
Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed pages authorized.
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000
Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center | 6300 Georgetown Pike | McLean, VA | 22101