Pedestrian Forum – Summer 2019

U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration

Volume 78

Downloadable PDF [1.06 MB]

In this issue:

Bikeway Selection Guide Update

STEP Continues to Promote Pedestrian Safety through EDC-5

Four Communities Receive Walk Friendly Designations

NEW! Low-Cost Safety Improvement Video Series

Update: Pedestrian and Bicyclist Scalable Risk Assessment Methodology

Bikeway Selection Guide Update

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently released its Bikeway Selection Guide, a resource to help transportation practitioners consider trade-offs and make decisions to accelerate the delivery of high-quality bicycle networks. The Guide was discussed in detail in the last edition of this newsletter.

As part of the project, FHWA hosted a webinar on March 26 that was attended by around 600 people, demonstrating the amount of interest in how states and localities can better accommodate bicyclists. This webinar shared details about the Guide, related FHWA resources, and technical assistance and training available to local and State agencies. The webinar was recorded and is available at the followng link: http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/webinars/webinar_details.cfm?id=80. Copies of the presentations can also be downloaded.

As a result of the webinar, FHWA received 245 requests from those interested in more information about a workshop, and narrowed down the schedule for the summer to Northeast and Northwest Arkansas; El Paso, Texas; Hampton Roads, Virginia; Ohio; Pennsylvania; and North Carolina. Several other technical assistance sessions will be scheduled for later in the year.

FHWA discovered that states and localities are already starting to use the Guide:

• The Minnesota Department of Transportation is updating its bikeway design manual currently, and will be using a lot of the content in the Guide in its development of selection guidance.
• A Bike/Ped Masterplan for East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is being developed and the Guide has been used extensively.
• The City of La Crosse, Wisconsin cited the Guide as a reason for deciding to put bike lanes on a busy street that was opposed by businesses and other groups because it would remove parking on one side of the street.
• The city of Arlington, Virginia included reference to the Guide (page 46) in the bicycle element of its Transportation Master Plan adopted on April 23.
• The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is incorporating information from the Guide into its Training Wheels 3.0 Course being developed. MDOT has a series of courses that it makes available to engineers and planners in localities all over the state (including Training Wheels, and Training Wheels 2.0).

Is your State or locality using the new Guide? If so, please let us know by contacting: tamara.redmon@dot.gov.

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STEP Continues to Promote Pedestrian Safety through EDC-5

Contributed by Becky Crowe

The FHWA Safe Transportation for Every Pedestrian (STEP) initiative began in 2017 under the fourth round of Every Day Counts (EDC), and it continues under the fifth round of EDC through 2020. EDC is a State-based model that identifies and rapidly deploys proven, yet underutilized innovations to shorten the project delivery process, enhance roadway safety, and reduce traffic congestion. Proven innovations promoted through EDC facilitate greater efficiency at the State and local levels, saving time, money and resources that can be used to deliver more projects.

STEP promotes seven total proven countermeasures for pedestrian crossing safety including crosswalk visibility enhancements, raised crosswalk, refuge island, Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacon, Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons, Road Diets, and Leading Pedestrian Interval. STEP created multiple resources, webinars, and studies to help agencies advance their implementation of pedestrian crossing safety countermeasures. These multi-media resources are great tools for educating the public and decision makers about options for improving pedestrian safety.

In early 2018, FHWA released the Guide for Improving Pedestrian Safety at Uncontrolled Crossing Locations. FHWA developed this guidance document in 2018, and it details a six-step process and tools to help agencies select countermeasures for uncontrolled crossing locations. The guide includes two tables to help decision-makers select countermeasure options based on research and best practices. This guide is supplemented by a Field Guide for Selecting Countermeasures at Uncontrolled Pedestrian Crossing Locations. FHWA also revised the PEDSAFE (Pedestrian Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System) to include an interactive version of the FHWA Guide for Improving Pedestrian Safety at Uncontrolled Crossing Locations. The tool responds to inputs provided by the user and returns a list of STEP countermeasures suitable to the roadway conditions. Each countermeasure is linked to a page in PEDSAFE that includes details about typical costs, design considerations, and installation examples.

More recently, STEP posted a series of STEP Countermeasure Videos that explain the overall purpose and design elements of five of the STEP countermeasures. These animated videos will help educate a broad spectrum of officials and the general public. The STEP countermeasures are also described by six Tech Sheets that include an illustrative rendering, cost information, design considerations, and crash reduction factors.

FHWA also created a series of STEP Case Studies that highlight agency policies and installation examples of the countermeasures. These case studies demonstrate the benefits of implementing countermeasures or outline a process for making decisions. Finally, STEP posted a series of one-page best practice examples from across the U.S. where State departments of transportation integrated pedestrian safety and countermeasures into Complete Streets policies, transportation plans, data analysis, and public outreach.

Stay tuned to the FHWA STEP website for new materials, resources or website announcements. For more information about STEP, visit the FHWA Office of Safety STEP Program Page or contact Becky Crowe at rebecca.crowe@dot.gov.

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Four New Communities Receive Walk Friendly Designations

The Walk Friendly Communities program (WFC) recently designated four new communities, recognizing their commitment to prioritize pedestrians and create safe and inviting places to walk. The designations include a Platinum-level designation for San Francisco, CA. Only three communities have received that designation in the 10 years of the program.

The new designations are:

Platinum:

San Francisco, California

Silver:

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Bronze:

Cedar Rapids,
Iowa Lakeland, Florida

WFC is a national recognition program developed to encourage cities and towns across the United States to develop and support walking environments with an emphasis on safety, mobility, access, and com fort. Sponsored by FedEx and managed by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC), the program distinguishes communities leading the way in walkability and seeks to share their stories to inspire other communities to move towards their own innovative solutions. WFC has recognized 73 cities across 32 States with Walk Friendly designations.

 "We're thrilled to celebrate ten years of Walk Friendly Communities by welcoming new cities and towns to the program," said Dan Gelinne, WFC program manager. "It is especially encouraging to see such impressive programs from a wide range of community sizes."

Cities and towns interested in joining the ranks of Walk Friendly Communities are encouraged to submit an application. The next round of applications is open now, and submissions are due by December 15, 2019. Interested communities are encouraged to visit the WFC website to learn more about the program and review the application process.

NEW! Low-Cost Safety Improvement Video Series

FHWA posted a Low-Cost Safety Improvements video series (including one for pedestrians and bikes) on YouTube recently. As the title suggests, these videos highlight effective safety countermeasures that are relatively inexpensive to implement.
The videos are:

–Enhanced delineation on horizontal curves

–For Unpaved Roads

–Speed Management Techniques:

–For Walking and Biking

–Longitudinal Pavement Markings

–Systemic Approach for Stop-Controlled Intersections

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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 and Bike Forum is available on the Web at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/pedforum/

To receive information on future newsletters, please use the esubscription service provided on this site: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/esubscribe.cfm. 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. Each year, unfortunately, pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities comprise about 17 percent of all traffic fatalities and there are approximately 6,000 pedestrian and bicyclist deaths. Another 115,000 pedestrians and bicyclists are injured in roadway crashes annually. Pedestrian and bicyclist safety improvements depend on an integrated approach that involves the four E's: Engineering, Enforcement, Education, and Emergency Services. The Pedestrian and Bicyclist Forum highlights recent pedestrian and bike safety activities related to the four E's that will help save lives.

Update: Pedestrian and Bicyclist Scalable Risk Assessment Methodology

As detailed in the Fall 2018 Edition of this Newsletter, The FHWA recently published the Guide for Scalable Risk Assessment Methods for Pedestrians and Bicyclists (ScRAM), which outlines eight sequential steps to develop risk values. Practitioners can use these scalable risk assessment methods to evaluate pedestrian and bicyclist risk at different geographic scales to inform program and project funding decisions.

As part of the contract, training sessions were held in Ft. Lauderdale, FL (October 2018); Denver, CO (November 2018); Reno, Nevada (December 2018); Augusta, Maine (April 2019); Hawaii (April 2019); Tulsa, OK (June 2019). All of the training sessions are complete, but free technical assistance is available for the next year or so. Contact tamara.redmon@dot.gov if interested.

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) recently completed a pilot project to put to practice the processes and methodologies outlined within the ScRAM Guide. With a network of over 200 miles of trails, the Central Ohio Greenways (COG) comprise a significant portion of the region's pedestrian and bicycle network. COG trails are mostly separated from road rights-of-way, but trail users have the potential to come into conflict with motorized vehicles at trail access points and at-grade roadway crossings. While MORPC was aware of the risk, they had not developed a method to understand, quantify, and address it prior to this study. The team followed the ScRAM Guide to develop anumeric index quantifying the risk experienced by non-motorized users of the COG trail network within the MPO boundary. The risk index establishes a methodology for prioritizing trail crossings and access points in need of advanced facilities and treatments.

MORPC calculated risk experienced by non-motorized users at 110 regional trail crossings and access points based on extrapolated trail count data and roadway user volumes. Staff estimated volumes on roadways without count data using statewide averages by roadway functional classification . Read more about it in FHWA's Multimodal Connectivity Newsletter.

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