Marked crosswalks are the primary means of safeguarding pedestrian travel at intersections in American cities. In the face of decades-high pedestrian fatalities nationwide, the provision of adequate cross walks is highly salient. Though, how they are spatially distributed across an entire city, and vary by neighborhood, has drawn little academic scrutiny. Given that, this study utilizes satellite imagery to map the presence of marked crosswalks throughout San Francisco, a dense, walkable city that has struggled to reach its pedestrian-safety goals. For the first time, this allows for a...
Sidewalks and crosswalks serve little purpose for pedestrians if they are routinely obstructed by automobiles. In New York City, local journalists and transportation advocates have drawn attention to this occurring, particularly in certain settings. Specifically, there is consistent photographic evidence that streets surrounding New York Police Department (hereafter, NYPD) offices are replete with cars parked on the sidewalk and within crosswalks. Though clearly problematic for pedestrians and abutting residents and local businesses, this type of parking behavior has not been studied...
Hong Kong has aggressively pursued transit value capture to finance railway infrastructure through its “Rail + Property” development program, or R+P. More than half of all revenues received by the MTR Corporation, the owner-operator of Hong Kong’s largest railway network, come from property development. A wide variety of R+P projects presently exist in Hong Kong. Most focus on housing development though all have some degree of commercial development. Recent generation R+P projects have placed a stronger premium on urban design and quality of pedestrian environments. This has generally paid...
Large college campuses generate considerable volumes of traffic in a variety of modes, and in greater numbers, than found in most U.S. settings. This setting presents a unique study opportunity, as well as a significant potential for conflicts between motorized and non-motorized users of the transportation system, surrounded as most campuses are by mixed-use environments e.g. retail, restaurant, entertainment and high-density residential facilities such as apartments and dorms. At the same time, university campuses are also typically characterized by a central core area where most trips...
The primary objective of this paper is to review the appropriate use of ratio variables in the study of pedestrian injury exposure. We provide a discussion that rejects the assumption that the relationship between a random variable (e.g., a population X) and a ratio (e.g., injury or disease per population Y/X) is necessarily negative. In the study of pedestrian risk, the null hypothesis is that pedestrian injury risk is constant with respect to pedestrian volume. This study employs a unique data set containing the number of pedestrian collisions, average annual pedestrian volume, average...
This report evaluates the SR2S program for a number of mandated issues: (i) The effectiveness of the program in reducing crashes, injuries and fatalities involving children in the vicinity of the projects; (ii) The impact of the program on levels of walking and bicycling to school; and (iii) The safety benefits of the program in comparison with other highway safety programs.
This paper describes an innovative pedestrian modeling technique known as Space Syntax, which was used to create estimates of pedestrian volumes for the city of Oakland, California. These estimates were used to calculate pedestrian exposure rates and to create a Relative Risk Index for the city’s first pedestrian master plan. A major challenge facing planners, transportation engineers, and pedestrian-safety advocates is the lack of detailed and high quality pedestrian-exposure data. Exposure is defined as the rate of contact with a potentially harmful agent or event. Pedestrian exposure is...
For more than thirty years, pedestrian safety studies have considered pedestrian-vehicle collision patterns and pedestrian and driver behavior at marked and unmarked crosswalks at uncontrolled crossings. Recent research in this area conducted by the UC Berkeley Traffic Safety Center [aka SafeTREC] on behalf of Caltrans, and summarized in a 2008 Transportation Research Record paper by Mitman et al., “The Marked Crosswalk Dilemma: Uncovering Some Missing Links in a 35-Year Debate,” was designed to fill key gaps in the literature by analyzing driver/pedestrian behavior and knowledge of right-...
This paper describes how regional funding guidelines can affect local adoption of Complete Streets projects. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the regional Metropolitan Planning Organization for the nine-county Bay Area region in California, has developed a funding approach called the One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) for the allocation of funds for the 2012-2016 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) and Surface Transportation Program (STP) across the Bay Area. Each jurisdiction receiving funding through OBAG was required to demonstrate compliance with Complete Streets (CS)...
This paper introduces the concepts behind estimating bicycle and pedestrian demand and provides an example of the development of a sketch-plan method for estimating bicycle and pedestrian demand from land use in San Diego County. The paper describes the methodology involved in collecting counts for the currently ongoing Seamless Travel project. The Seamless Travel project intends to develop a model for estimating bicycle and pedestrian demand within San Diego County. The project methodology includes conducting bicycle and pedestrian counts and intercept surveys over a two-year period...
