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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Evaluating the Impact of Improved Roadway Lighting on Nighttime Driver Behavior and Pedestrian Safety</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2625596</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Nighttime crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists remain a significant safety concern, with 76% of pedestrian fatalities occurring in low-light conditions. Insufficient roadway lighting exacerbates visibility challenges, increasing crash risks for vulnerable road users (VRUs). Research indicates that enhancing street lighting can reduce pedestrian injuries by up to 50%; however, many urban corridors remain inadequately lit, leaving pedestrians and cyclists at heightened risk.  While improved roadway lighting is widely recognized as a potential countermeasure to enhance safety, existing studies rely primarily on crash data, which often lack the granularity needed to isolate its direct safety effects. Despite its intuitive benefits, empirical evidence quantifying the real-world safety impacts of lighting improvements remains limited. Understanding how enhanced lighting influences crash rates, driver behavior, and pedestrian perceptions is essential for guiding infrastructure investments and policy decisions.  This study aims to evaluate the safety effects of improved roadway lighting by analyzing changes in nighttime crash rates, driver behavior, and pedestrian perceptions. With support from the City of Milwaukee, corridors within the Pedestrian High-Injury Network (HIN) will be identified as study sites. Using a before-and-after observational study design combined with surveys, this research will examine the relationship between enhanced street lighting and safety outcomes for VRUs.  The research seeks to answer the following questions: How does improved roadway lighting impact VRU nighttime safety? Diminishing returns effect: Does the initial reduction in nighttime crashes decline over time as behavioral adaptation and other risk factors emerge? Spillover effect: Do safety benefits extend beyond the treated area, or does the intervention inadvertently shift risk to other locations or behaviors? What behavioral changes occur among drivers and VRUs in response to improved lighting? How do road users perceive the effectiveness of increased roadway lighting in terms of safety and comfort? By addressing these questions, this study will generate data-driven insights into the role of roadway lighting in improving nighttime safety. Findings will inform policy and infrastructure decisions while supporting Milwaukee and other cities in their efforts to create safer, more accessible urban environments for VRUs.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:39:50 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Pedestrian Level of Traffic Stress (PLTS) Application and Validation</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2401757</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Many of the existing methods to evaluate pedestrian and bicyclist suitability require a large number of inputs, some of which are not available in typical roadway inventory data (e.g., pavement condition, on-street parking coverage, heavy vehicle proportion), making them impractical for most agencies to apply. Some of these methods also require statistical modeling expertise or specialized software to run, further putting them out of reach for many agencies. Occasionally, their outputs do not make intuitive sense. The Year 1 
Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety (CPBS) project created a well-researched, standardized version of a table-based, Pedestrian Level of Traffic Stress (PLTS) tool. It incorporates many of the most important and easy-to-collect roadway factors associated with pedestrian suitability from a) existing pedestrian suitability methods and b) the pedestrian safety literature. This Year 2 project will build on the previous effort to apply the method in at least two case study communities (including the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and validate the PLTS categories in a sample of locations against real pedestrian stress ratings from public surveys and police-reported pedestrian crash data. The goal is to establish a validated, practical PLTS method that agencies across the country can use to estimate suitability and stress for pedestrians in various contexts, ultimately leading to safer and more enjoyable walking and rolling conditions.  

As done for the BLTS in 2012, the research team will produce a final technical report that includes a description of the PLTS method. This report will include PLTS tables and example PLTS maps from communities where the method has been tested. The final report will discuss how well the PLTS method works for practitioners and matches with public perceptions of pedestrian stress and pedestrian crash locations.  As done for the BLTS in 2012, the research team will produce a final technical report that includes a description of the PLTS method. This report will include PLTS tables and example PLTS maps from communities where the method has been tested. The final report will discuss how well the PLTS method works for practitioners and matches with public perceptions of pedestrian stress and pedestrian crash locations.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jul 2024 14:54:19 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2401757</guid>
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      <title>Gender Analysis Tool for Complete Streets Policy Implementation: Mobility, Families, and Emerging Technologies</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1676642</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the U.S. and throughout the world, engineers and planners recognize the need for streets to support safe mobility for different travel modes and types of users. Complete streets policies capture this aim of inclusivity by emphasizing design for older and younger travelers as well as people with disabilities. Issues of gender, families, and caregiving are implicit in this idea of a complete street. On average, women have more household responsibility for accompanying younger, older, and less mobile travelers. Current complete streets policies, however, lack explicit consideration of gender, leaving communities with little guidance for operationalizing gender equity through transportation system design. The deployment of emerging transportation technologies further complicates the question of gender equity in the implementation of compete streets. How do new mobility technologies interact with gender roles, caregiving, and family structure? These questions, in fact, may provide a pivotal opportunity for communities to consider the interaction of gender, technology, and system design for the future city. Drawing upon established methods of gender-based policy analysis, which is both qualitative and quantitative, this project has three specific aims: (1) develop the relevant evidence needed to help communities operationalize gender equity through street design and policy; (2) work with organized stakeholders in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which recently adopted a complete streets policy, to translate the evidence base into a practical gender analysis tool for complete streets implementation; and (3) establish a plan and protocol to refine and validate the prototype gender analysis tool in new contexts.   ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Jan 2020 15:35:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1676642</guid>
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