Guidance for Selecting Pedestrian Safety Treatments at Signalized Intersections to Address Permitted Turn Conflicts

State departments of transportation (DOTs) and local agencies work to improve pedestrian safety at signalized intersections while maintaining efficient vehicle operations. Traditional signal timing practices often allow pedestrians to cross concurrently with permitted turning vehicles, which can create unsafe or stressful conditions for pedestrians, particularly at intersections with high turning volumes and speed or complex geometries. Agencies have implemented treatments such as leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs), delayed-turn strategies, and protected-only turn phases, but these applications are often applied without nationally consistent, data-driven guidance. Existing resources identify available pedestrian safety treatments but provide limited guidance on when specific strategies are most appropriate. This can lead to inconsistent practices and difficulty balancing pedestrian safety improvements with operational impacts to vehicles. The objective of this research is to develop a data-driven guide for selecting pedestrian safety treatments at signalized intersections to address conflicts with permitted turning vehicles. Using field-collected data, the research will evaluate treatments under varying traffic, geometric, and signal timing conditions, with results to help agencies identify appropriate strategies.

• Record URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=6053
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $600,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 17-148

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Nasri, Arefeh

• Start Date: 20260608
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Pedestrian safety; Signalized intersections; Traffic signal timing; Turning traffic
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01992224
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 17-148
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jun 10 2026 11:11AM