Pedestrian Safety - Report to Congress

August 2008

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Executive Summary

This report was prepared in response to the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), Public Law 109-59, Section 2003(e), which requires the Secretary of Transportation to produce a comprehensive report on pedestrian safety. It builds on the current level of knowledge of pedestrian safety countermeasures by identifying the most effective advanced technology and intelligent transportation systems, such as automated pedestrian detection and warning systems (infrastructure-based and vehicle-based), road design, and vehicle structural design improvements, that could potentially mitigate the crash forces on pedestrians in the event of a crash. Pursuant to Section 2003(e), the report also includes recommendations on how new technological developments could be incorporated into educational and enforcement efforts and how they could be integrated into national design guidelines developed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the Federal Highway Administration.

Pedestrian injury and fatality statistics from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), a database maintained and updated annually by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), can be used to illustrate the extent of the problem. These data indicate that of the 42,642 total highway deaths that occurred on U.S. highways in 2006, 4,784 were pedestrian deaths.

The report found that nearly all of the technologies and improvements assessed are in some stage of development and are not yet market ready. They almost universally require additional research and extensive field testing to demonstrate and evaluate the benefits and feasibility of deploying the systems in a live environment. These research and test results are essential in order to accurately identify the most effective advanced technologies and intelligent transportation systems to prevent or mitigate pedestrian crashes. Further research is also necessary to determine the most appropriate locations where each type of technology should be deployed to maximize a technology's potential for improving pedestrian safety. States and localities need this information to match the proper corrective technology to the specific pedestrian crash problems they face to assure the greatest safety impact in the most cost-efficient manner.

Once proven, these technologies may be incorporated into education and enforcement efforts, including outreach programs needed to increase public awareness of how the technologies work and how they are used to improve pedestrian safety. Law enforcement officials will also need to be educated as to how the technologies tie into enforcement efforts, and enforcement of the pedestrian right-of-way within the context of these new technologies should be encouraged to reinforce proper motorist and pedestrian behavior.

In the area of advanced vehicle design, NHTSA has been working with the international community to develop a global technical regulation (GTR) on pedestrian safety that is designed to reduce head and leg injuries when a pedestrian is hit by the front of a vehicle. NHTSA has concluded the technical work to develop the GTR and is preparing to establish the regulation by November of 2008 by consensus voting of the contracting parties to the 1998 Agreement under WP.29 (the forum under which NHTSA has been developing the regulation). A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will be initiated within a few month of the November vote.

The integration of advanced pedestrian safety technologies into national design standards will require successful completion of the field tests and research needed to validate their benefits and feasibility. Therefore, efforts to integrate the advanced technologies to improve pedestrian safety discussed in this report into national design guidelines should await the completion of field tests and research that clearly establish the benefits and feasibility of each technology.

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