Development of Decision Support Tools to Assess Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety: Field Evaluation of Driver Behavior and Traffic Operations
A field study was performed at 40 uncontrolled midblock crosswalks and 26 signalized intersections on lowspeed roadways selected from the areas surrounding three major urban college campuses across lower Michigan. An array of existing traffic control devices existed at the study sites, including various crosswalk marking strategies, along with additional treatments, such as pedestrian hybrid beacons (PHBs), rectangular rapid-flashing beacons (RRFBs) and single in-street R1-6 signs. The sites also collectively included a diverse set of roadway and traffic characteristics, including crossing widths, number of lanes, and median presence, along with vehicular, pedestrian, and bicyclist volumes. Three primary evaluations were performed for the midblock segments and signalized intersection study sites, including: driver yielding compliance, vehicle-pedestrian conflicts, and non-motorized traffic crash data. The yielding compliance study found that the type of crosswalk treatment has a strong influence over driver yielding compliance. While yielding compliance improves substantially when crosswalk markings are utilized, the highest compliance rates are achieved when an additional enhancement device (i.e., RRFB, PHB, or R1-6 sign), is also provided. To supplement small crash sample sizes at the study sites, Michigan statewide pedestrian and bicyclist crash data were collected and utilized to develop safety performance functions (SPFs) and other methods for predicting pedestrian and bicyclist crashes at road segments and intersections. Because pedestrian and bicyclist volumes were not available statewide, each model was developed for pedestrian and bicycle crashes based solely on vehicular AADT. In general, the models showed that pedestrian and bicycle crashes tend to increase with increasing traffic volumes. However, even in the highest volume cases, only a fraction of crashes involved a pedestrian or bicyclist. Pedestrian and bicycle crashes were further estimated based on the respective proportion of the Michigan specific SPF models for total crashes. The primary limitation towards prediction of pedestrian and bicycle crashes is the lack of a reliable
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $150019.00
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Contract Numbers:
DTRT13-G-UTC60
TRC 14-6
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
1903 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI United States 49008-5241Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI United States 49009-5316 -
Project Managers:
Dunn, Denise
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Performing Organizations:
Civil and Environmental Engineering
5050 Anthony Wayne Drive
Detroit, MI United States 48202 -
Principal Investigators:
Hummer, Joseph
Gates, Timothy
- Start Date: 20140901
- Expected Completion Date: 0
- Actual Completion Date: 20160630
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
- Subprogram: Research
- Source Data: RiP Project 36936
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Behavior; Bicycle crashes; Decision support systems; Drivers; Highway operations; Highway safety; Intersections; Land use; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Traffic volume
- Identifier Terms: Safety Performance Functions
- Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01532766
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities
- Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC60, TRC 14-6
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Aug 6 2014 1:00AM