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FHWA Home / Safety / Pedestrian & Bicycle / Pedestrian Forum – Winter 2015

Pedestrian Forum – Winter 2015

Volume 66

USDOT treskelion logo.
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration

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In this issue:

FHWA Completes Revision of Bikesafe

A Resident's Guide for Creating Safer Communities for Walking and Biking

New Resources and Guide to Promote the Use of Road Diets

Other USDOT Resources Now Available

DOT Secretary Fox Announces New Biking/Walking Safety Initiative

"Safety is our highest priority and that commitment is the same regardless of which form of transportation people choose, including walking and biking. This initiative is aimed at reversing the recent rise in deaths and injuries among the growing number of Americans who bicycle or walk to work, to reach public transportation and to other important destinations."

—Secretary of Transportation
Anthony Foxx

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx FHWA Completes Revision of Bikesafe and bicyclist injuries and fatalities through a comprehensive approach that addresses infrastructure safety, education, vehicle safety and data collection.The 18-month campaign will produce multiple resources to help communities build streets that are safer for people walking, bicycling, and taking public transportation. Secretary Foxx made the announcement at the Pro Walk, Pro Bike, Pro Place conference in Pittsburgh.

Injuries and fatalities of pedestrians and bicyclists have increased since 2009.new safety initiative will promote design improvements to ensure safe and efficient routes for pedestrians and bicyclists, promote behavioral safety, and provide educational information to help individuals make safer travel choices. The initiative will also encourage vehicle safety by drawing on current crash avoidance technologies to alert motorists to the presence of bicyclists and pedestrians.

As part of the initiative, the Department's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Transit Administration and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration field offices will be leading a pedestrian and/or bicyclist safety assessment in each State. The assessments will be conducted with local transportation officials and stakeholders to understand where and why gaps exist in the non-motorized transportation network and strategize on ways to close them.Gaps are areas where the risk of a crash increases due to the lack of sidewalks or other infrastructure. The Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Federal Railroad Administration will participate in assessments to gain understanding of non-motorized crashes involving truck and trains.

Secetary of Transportation Anthony Fox at Pro Walk Pro Bike Pro Place Podium

In addition, the Department will work with local officials, advocacy groups, and safety organizations to help champion the use of several new resources. also will convene meetings with practitioners and researchers about practices and policies that are barriers to creating safer streets for non-motorized users.

The initiative will also focus on improving pedestrian and bicycle routes that provide access to bus stops and train stations.Research has shown that lower income communities have disproportionately higher rates of pedestrian deaths, as well as less safe pedestrian infrastructure, despite higher reliance on non-motorized modes and public transportation.

Click here to view the Secretary's Action Plan.


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"At FHWA, ourprogram is multi-faceted.have developed a broad range of tools and resources to foster pedestrian and bicycle safety and will continue to actively promote these resources and develop new tools to help communities build streets that are safer for people walking, bicycling, and taking public transportation,"

–Acting Federal Highway Administrator Gregory G. Nadeau.

FHWA Completes Revision of Bikesafe

The FHWA released its newly revised Bicycle Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System (BIKESAFE). This resource helps support the U.S. DOT's new pedestrian and bicycle safety initiative discussed on page 1 of this newsletter.

"At FHWA, ourprogram is multi-faceted.have developed a broad range of tools and resources to foster pedestrian and bicycle safety and will continue to actively promote these resources and develop new tools to help communities build streets that are safer for people walking, bicycling, and taking public transportation," said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Gregory G. Nadeau.

BIKESAFE is an online guide for implementing countermeasures to improve the safety and mobility of bicyclists. It provides practitioners with information and tools to review and select engineering and roadway infrastructure improvements to reduce bicyclist injuries.

BIKESAFE is comprised of four sections: A guide of basic information, specific countermeasure details, case studies, and an expert system tool for countermeasure selection, as well as links to dozens of other helpful web resources.

Guide: This section helps practitioners better understand the issues facing bicyclists, how to analyze crashes, and how to implement new treatments.

Countermeasures: The Countermeasures section includes a comprehensive list of 46 engineering, education, and enforcement countermeasure options, as well as details of each countermeasure, including its description, purpose, considerations, safety effect, and cost.

Screenshot: BIKESAFE Bicycle Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System

Case Studies: There are 34 case studies, or success stories, that document one or more of the countermeasures that have been implemented, along with the background of the problems, bicycle safety solutions selected, and the results of the treatments.

Selection Tool: The expert countermeasure selection system allows users to input the basic safety problem and site conditions. The expert system will propose a "short list" of candidate treatment options that likely would be suited to address the specific bicyclist safety problem for that situation.

This online version of BIKESAFE updates an eight-year-old version and is now available as an interactive tool, usable on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. BIKESAFE can be found at http://www.pedbikesafe.org/BIKESAFE.


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A Resident's Guide for Creating Safer Communities for Walking and Biking

Photo: Lady Walking
Photo: Mom helping Son with bike helmet

The FHWA Office of Safety released a new guide, A Resident's Guide for Creating Safer Communities for Walking and Biking. This guide is an update of A Resident's Guide for Creating Safe and Walkable Communities developed 7 years ago. It is intended to assist residents, parents, community association members, and others in getting involved in making communities safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. This new version addresses bicyclist accommodation and includes new case studies.

The guide includes facts, ideas, and resources to help residents learn about traffic problems that affect pedestrians and bicyclists and to find ways to help address these problems and promote safety among all road users. It includes information on identifying problems, taking action to address pedestrian and bicycle concerns, finding solutions to improve safety, and resources to get additional information.

The Guide provides several Community Success Stories that highlight community-oriented pedestrian safety projects and programs. It contains several Resource Sheets that can be adapted to meet the needs of a particular community, or distributed to others working to improve pedestrian safety. The Guide provides a thorough introduction to pedestrian safety and includes many references to other resources and materials.


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New Resources and Guide to Promote the Use of Road Diets

As discussed in this newsletter in the Winter 2012 and Fall 2012 editions of this newsletter, “road diets” are one of the FHWA's proven safety countermeasures, and now they are also an Every Day Counts (EDC) initiative. A classic Road Diet converts an existing four-lane undivided roadway segment to a three-lane segment consisting of two through lanes and a center two-way left turn lane. A Road Diet improves safety by including a protected left-turn lane for mid-block left-turning motorists, reducing crossing distance for pedestrians, providing bike lanes and reducing travel speeds that decrease crash severity.

Photos: Before picture of road without a protected left lane; after picutre of same road with protected left lane

The EDC program is designed to focus on a finite set of innovations.Teams from the FHWA work with state, local, and industry partners to deploy the initiatives anddevelop performance measures to gauge their success.Although the clock doesn't start ticking on EDC-3 until January 1, 2015, Road Diets are one of 13 innovations that have been announced.A diverse technical team has been established to develop a Road Diet Implementation Plan to manage the deployment of Road Diets over the next two years (2015-2016). From October through December 10th, transportation leaders from across the country gathered at regional summits to discuss the EDC-3 innovations and share best practices. The summits were the first step for states, local public agencies and Federal Lands Highway Divisions to learn more about the initiatives and determine which innovations make the most sense for their unique program needs, establish performance goals and commit to finding opportunities to get those innovations into practice over the next two years.

The Office of Safety has published a Road Diet Informational Guide that supports the EDC effort.This Guide includes safety, operational, and quality of life considerations from research and practice, and guides readers through the decision-making process to determine if Road Diets are a good fit for a certain corridor. This Informational Guide will provide necessary guidance to our partners as theyimplement this proven safety countermeasure.

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Text: FHWA

Tamara Redmon, Pedestrian Safety Program Manager
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE
Room E71-303
Washington, DC 20590

Phone: 202-366-4077
Fax: 202-366-3222
E-mail: tamara.redmon@dot.gov

This Pedestrian Forum is available on the Web at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/pedforum/
To receive information on future newsletters, please use the e-subscription service provided on this site: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/esubscribe.cfm#ped. Scroll down to "Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety" and select "subscribe" next to "Pedestrian Forum."

Helping Communities to provide safe and convenient transportation choices to all citizens, whether it's by walking, bicycling, transit, or driving is a high priority of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Obama Administration. Each year, unfortunately, pedestrian fatalities comprise about 13 percent of all traffic fatalities and there are approximately 5,000 pedestrian deaths. Another 70,000 pedestrians are injured in roadway crashes annually. Pedestrian safety improvements depend on an integrated approach that involves the four E's: Engineering, Enforcement, Education, and Emergency Services. The Pedestrian Forum highlights recent pedestrian safety activities related to the four E's that will help save lives.

FHWA logo.

Other Resources from the US Department of Transportation Now Available

Bicycle and Pedestrian Funding Table Posted:

Photo: Elderly Lady Crossing Roadway Using a Walker

FHWA recently posted a table indicating potential eligibility for pedestrian and bicycle projects under FTA and FHWA programs. Specific program requirements must be met, and eligibility must be determined, on a case-by-case basis. For example: transit funds must provide access to transit; Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality must benefit air quality; Highway Safety Improvement Program projects must be consistent with the State Strategic Highway Safety Plan and address a highway safety problem; National Highway Performance Program must benefit National Highway System corridors; Recreational Trails Program must benefit trails; the Federal Lands and Tribal Transportation Programs must provide access to or within Federal or tribal lands. See more information about Bikes and Transit and Eligibility of Pedestrian and Bicycle Improvements under Federal Transit Law.

Webinar Recording for Designing for Older Road Users Available:

This webinar focused on how streets and highways can be designed to better meet the needs of older road users. Becky Crowe (FHWA) discussed programs and projects underway at FHWA to advance the safety of Older Road Users.Gene Amparano (FHWA) provided attendees with an in-depth look at the updated Handbook for Designing Roadways for the Aging Population. Jesse Mintz-Roth (New York City DOT) focused on New York City's Safe Streets for Seniors Program.To view the recording, visit http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/training/webinars_FHWA_112014.cfm


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Page last modified on January 9, 2015
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