Pedestrian Forum — Winter 2003

Safe Pedestrians and a Walkable America
VOL. 22, Fall 2002 / Winter 2003

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/pedforum/

The goal of the FHWA is to continually improve highway safety by reducing highway fatalities and injuries by 20 percent in ten years. Ensuring safe travel on highways is the guiding principle throughout the FHWA. Pedestrian fatalities account for about 12 percent of all traffic fatalities and are one of the focus areas of the Safety Office. FHWA has taken the position that walking and bicycling are legitimate modes of transportation.

There is no question that conditions for bicycling and walking need to be improved in every community in the United States; it is no longer acceptable that over 5,000 pedestrians and bicyclists are killed in traffic every year, that people with disabilities cannot travel without encountering barriers, and that two desirable and efficient modes of travel have been made difficult and uncomfortable. Every transportation agency has the responsibility and the opportunity to make a difference in the bicycle-friendliness and walkability of our communities. The design information to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians is available, as is the funding. The United States Department of Transportation is committed to doing all it can to improve conditions for bicycling and walking and to make them safer ways to travel. (The Pedestrian Forum is also on the web at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/ )

Roundabout Summit Held

On October 28 and 29, the FHWA's Safety Office and ITE hosted a Roundabout Summit with the objective of bringing various experts from the engineering and disabled community together to determine how best to accommodate blind and visually impaired pedestrians at roundabout locations. There was a lot of interest in attending the summit, unfortunately many had to be turned away due to lack of space.

Roundabouts are problematic for the blind and visually impaired because the cues they normally have at intersection locations (the sounds of traffic stopping and surging, and the knowledge that eventually there will be a red signal to aid them in crossing) are absent at roundabouts where there is a constant flow of traffic and absolutely no way to trust that traffic is going to stop for you.

The summit came about because the U.S. Access Board, a government entity charged with developing national design standards for complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has recommended that pedestrian signals be installed at roundabout locations in order to accommodate the blind and visually disabled under the ADA (go to http://www.access-board.gov/rowdraft.htm#DRAFT to view the Draft Guidelines for Accessible Public Rights-of-Way dated June 17, 2002). Many believe that installing signals at roundabouts would "kill" roundabouts in the U.S. (both because of the expense of installing the signals and the loss of mobility for motorists) and want to come up with a better solution. Roundabouts have been effective at improving mobility and safety at intersections for drivers of motor vehicles. However, safety for pedestrians and bicyclists may be questionable.

Although the problem of safely accommodating the blind and visually impaired at roundabouts was not solved, participants felt the workshop was effective in giving the people who design roundabouts an understanding of the problems that people from the visually disabled community face everyday in their travels. ITE will compile the recommendations brought forth at the summit and will work with FHWA to determine the next appropriate course of action. There may be future roundabout summits scheduled if that is deemed useful. A report will be available in January 2003. For more information on the Roundabout Summit, Contact Louisa Ward at 202-366-2218 or louisa.ward@fhwa.dot.gov .

New Enhancements for the Bicycle Safety Education Resource Center —

The Bicycle Safety Education Resource Center housed at http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/ee/fhwa.html has been further improved to allow those who have course information posted in it to update the information and to add new course information as well. Additionally, the database now allows new users to create their own username and password and include courses not previously listed. Those wishing to add or change information are assigned a username and password that gives them access to their program materials. Keeping the information in the database current will add significantly to the value of the Web Site as a whole and will be tremendously helpful to those using the resource.

This Resource Center provides bicycle safety education information for the following groups: Preschool (under age 5), Beginner (ages 5-8), Young (Ages 9-12), Teenage (13+), Adult, Senior, Motorists, and Adults Teaching Children. The Resource Center consists of three parts. The first part is a Database, where you can look for training materials for your intended audience. It even allows you to tailor your search and be as specific as possible. The second part is a Database Guide that identifies the training needs of the eight different audiences identified above. The third part is a Good Practices Guide that will guide you through the process of designing your own program. . Hard copies of the Good Practices Guide are available by contacting Tamara Redmon at tamara.redmon@fhwa.dot.gov.

The Resource Center has recently been chosen by the National Science Teachers Association for inclusion on its SciLinks Web page. According to http://www.scilinks.org/certificate.asp, "Web pages selected for SciLinks are among the best found on the Internet. The Web pages [are identified only after] going through a rigorous process to ensure that its content is accurate and especially useful to teachers and students. An experienced team of teachers and content experts searches for and evaluatesthousands of sites, so SciLinks users can concentrate on teaching and learning the concepts found in their texts."

Census 2000 Data on People with Disabilities

Data from the 2000 Census shows that 49.7 millionpeople in the U.S. age five and over have a disability — which represents about 19% of the population. Census 2000 was the first Census to include questions on people with disabilities on the long form. Some of thedata include:

  • – 5.2 million were between the ages of five and 20 (8% of people in age group).

  • – 30.6 million were between the ages of 21 and 64.

  • – 14 million were 65 and over (42% of the age group).

  • – Among the highest rates in the country were for residents of Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and West Virginia, where 24% of the populations age five and over had a disability.

  • – Among the lowest rates in the country were for residents of Alaska, Minnesota and Utah, where 15% of the population had a disability in 2000.

IACP Approves Resolution on Pedestrian Safety

The membership of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) approved 23 resolutions on various law enforcement issues during its 109th Annual Conference in Minneapolis, MN. One of the resolutions passed was on reducing pedestrian fatalities. The resolution urges states and provinces to educate and implement pedestrian collision prevention programs and enforce pedestrian traffic laws. For more information visit: http://www.theiacp.org/Resolutions/index.cfm?fuseaction=dis_public_view&resolution_id=192&CFID=38041&CFTOKEN=6483924.

NHTSA Publishes Safe Routes to School Toolkit

NHTSA has teamed up with the Marin County Bicycle Coalition's safe routes to school project to produce an 88-page toolkit for use by educators and others to promote walking and biking to school that includes sections on mapping the routes to school, activities and outreach, and classroom lessons. The toolkit also includes sample Safe Routes to School forms, press releases, posters, and other resources. HTML and pdf versions available at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/

Nevada State Pedestrian and Bicycle Conference 2003

The conference will take place on March 27 and 28th in Las Vegas. Papers are invited on the following tracks: Safety and Education, Engineering and Design, Promotion and Advocacy, Enforcement and Legal Issues, Livable Communities and Planning, Grant Writing. Potential writers should submit abstracts (no more than 300 words -- clearly state the purpose of the work described in the final paper) before January 10 for review by the Technical Advisory Committee. Successful authors will be notified by January 15. For more info, contact Eric Glick at bicycle@dot.state.nv.us or at 775-888-RIDE.

Latest Federal Spending on Bike/Ped Projects

Spending of Federal funds for bike/ped projects increased from $339 million in FY 01 to $416 million in FY 02-an 18.5 percent increase. The FHWA's Fiscal Management Information System (FMIS) records projects for which funds have been obligated and which have been coded as bicycle and/or pedestrian projects. The above figure does not include funding from FTA or NHTSA and doesn't count projects where bicycle and pedestrian improvements are an incidental part of a larger project.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Image Library Expands

The image library, located at www.pedbikeimages.org, now has more than 2,600 images catalogued in various topic areas for easy searching, such as "walking," "bicycling," "people and behavior," "design and engineering," "traffic calming and management," "compact developments," etc. For those who have never used it, the image library is great for searching for ped/bike photographs to put into reports, presentations, and articles. Best of all, the images are completely FREE. Those who have images they would like to submit and share with the world, please send them to Christian Valiulis at cvaliulis@claire.hsrc.unc.edu.

New Record for Walk to School Day 2002

This year all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Ricoparticipated in Walk to School Day. The number of participants in the United States jumped to over 2,500 schools, and international participation grew to a total of twenty-eight countries. In 2003, for the first time, Walk to School Activities will be celebrated for an entire school week from October 6th to the 10th. International Walk to School Day will be celebrated in the middle of the week on October 8th. These dates were chosen by an international committee including representatives from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Visit www.iwalktoschool.org for more info. (Source: TRB Pedestrian Committee's "Pedestrian Digest," dated 11/25/02).

UPCOMING EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

January

  • 12-16    Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DCwww.trb.org/trb/annual.nsf (Note: A complete list of Ped/Bike sessions is attached).

  • 30-2/2   2nd Annual New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy, and Livable Communities. New Orleans, LA. www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/smartgrowth/

March

Editors:
tamara.redmon@fhwa.dot.gov, 202-366-4077
shirley.thompson@fhwa.dot.gov, 202-366-2154
leverson.boodlal@fhwa.dot.gov, 202-366-8044
400 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590

TRB Schedule:

Events of the Committee on Pedestrians (A3B04)

SUNDAY JANUARY 12
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, How Pedestrians View Their Environment – And How Drivers View Pedestrians at Street Crossings and Intersections: Encouraging Pedestrian Movement Through Effective Design, Human Factors Workshop #103, Marriott (NOTE: separate advance registration and fee required)

MONDAY JANUARY 13
8:00 AM - 9:45 AM, Behind the Curtain: Uncovering Bias in "Safety"Research and Policy, Session 223, Hilton
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM, A3B04 – Meeting of Committee on Pedestrians, Marriott, Balcony D
2:30 PM - 5:30 PM, Traffic Control Devices: Visibility, Signing, and Safety (Poster) Session 304, Marriott

TUESDAY JANUARY 14
9:00 AM - 7:30 PM, Video Theatre – Pedestrians and Bicycles, Marriott -Eisenhower Room
10:15 AM - 12:00 PM, Marketing: How "Soft Policies" Can Solve Hard Transportation Problems, Session 452, Marriott
2:30 PM - 5:30 PM, Pedestrian Safety, Facilities, Planning, Design and Operations, (Poster) Session 509, Marriott

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 15
9:00 AM - 6:30 PM, Video Theatre – Pedestrians and Bicycles, Hilton -Jackson Room
2:30 PM - 4:00 PM, The Public Health Dilemmas of Community Design and Transportation: Are Active Community Environments Enough?, Session 681, Shoreham
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM, Integrating Pedestrians and Vehicles in Public and Private Spaces, Session 691, Hilton
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM, An Analysis of Five Years of GIS PBCAT for Three Large Cities with High Pedestrian Crash Rates: What do These Data Tells Us?, Session 711, Shoreham
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM, Feet First Reception, Hilton – Terrace (all A3B04 members and friends are welcome and encouraged to attend)
7:30 PM - 9:15 PM, Walkability Issues (Adult and Child Pedestrians), Session 728, Marriott
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM, Organizational Meeting for Joint Subcommittee on Roundabouts, Marriott – Harding Room

Events Related to Non-Motorized Transport

MONDAY JANUARY 13
8:00 AM-12:00 PM, A3B07 – Committee on Bicycles, Hilton – State Room
3:45-5:30 PM, A3B07(1) – Committee on Bicycles, Subcommittee on Education and Awareness, Hilton – Kalorama Room
7:30-9:30 PM, A3B07(2) – Committee on Bicycles, Subcommittee on Bicycle Traffic Engineering, Hilton – Kalorama Room
7:30 to 9:30 PM, Segway: Opportunities & Challenges, Session 373, Hilton

TUESDAY JANUARY 14
8:00-9:45 AM, A3B07(3) – Committee on Bicycles, Subcommittee on Safety Data and Measurement, Hilton - Kalorama Room
10:15 AM-12:00 PM, A3B07(4) – Committee on Bicycles, Subcommittee on Planning for Bicycles, Hilton - Kalorama Room
1:30 PM - 3:15 PM, A3B07(5) – Committee on Bicycles, Joint Subcommittee on Emerging Technologies and Vehicles, Hilton - Kalorama Room
1:30 PM - 3:15 PM, Urban Transport Safety and Design in Africa, Session 497, Hilton
2:30 PM - 5:30 PM, International Bicycle Safety and Operations Research, (Poster) Session 510, Marriott
3:45 PM - 5:30 PM, Nonmotorized Transport Design and Appraisal Issues in Asia, Session 542, Hilton

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 15
8:00 AM - 9:45 AM Facility Suitability for Bicycling, Session 619, Hilton
8:00 AM-12:00 PM, A5013 – Committee on Nonmotorized Transport and Related Issues in Developing Countries, Hilton - Kalorama Room
2:30 PM - 4:00 PM, Global Environment Facility and Transportation: Early Lessons from World Bank Assisted Projects in Lima, Manila, Mexico City, and Santiago, Session 695, Hilton
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM, Climate Change: Financing Opportunity forTransportation in Developing Countries?, Session 723, Hilton
7:30 PM - 9:15 PM, Urban Bicycle Commuting – Transportation Issues, Session 742, Hilton
7:30 PM - 9:15 PM, Poverty and Transport in Asia, Session 750, Hilton

THURSDAY JANUARY 16
8:00 AM - 9:45 AM, Roundabouts and Low–Vision Pedestrians, Session 801, Marriott

 

 

Program Contact

Tamara Redmon

202-366-4077

Dick Schaffer

202-366-2176

What’s New

The FHWA Safety Office is continually developing new materials to assist states, localities and citizens in improving pedestrian and bicycle safety. The materials listed on this page were completed recently.

New Spotlight on Pedestrian Safety

New Promoting the Implementation of Proven Pedestrian Countermeasures

Pedestrian Forum - Fall 2011

State Best Practice Policy for Medians

State Best Practice Policy for Shoulders and Walkways

Pedestrian Countermeasure Policy Best Practice Report

The State of Florida is developing a statewide Pedestrian Safety Action Plan. They have set up a project website that includes information about the project, workshop presentations and resources relating to pedestrian safety.

Evaluating Pedestrian Safety Countermeasures

Safety Benefits of Raised Medians and Pedestrian Refuge Areas: Brochure, Booklet

Safety Benefits of Walkways, Sidewalks, and Paved Shoulders: Brochure, Booklet

Pedestrian Safety Strategic Plan