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was heavy pedestrian movement between a parking garage see previous bullet) was sight distance. There were several
and a municipal building in the morning and afternoon). comments at individual sites where the adequacy of the
In this situation, a signal is not needed for the pedestrian available site distance was questionable, especially when
(although one participant noted that a signal may be on-street parking was present.
needed for the vehiclesi.e., the signal needs to stop the
pedestrians to allow the cars to move through the cross-
Summary
ing). The participants preferred having the vehicle data
expressed in number of vehicles rather than gaps. In the 2003 MUTCD, the pedestrian warrant for a traffic
· The revised warrant should consider the operating or control signal considers several factors in determining the
posted speed on the major roadway. need for a signal: pedestrian volume, gaps in vehicular traffic,
· Several participants commented on treating pedestrians and walking speed (which may be used to reduce pedestrian
and vehicles equally. volume). Previous studies have documented the difficulty of
· One participant noted a safety concern with crosswalks meeting this warrant at intersections with pedestrian cross-
on streets with four or more lanes. These crosswalks have ing needs. A review of the literature provided insight into the
the potential for a "multiple threat" conflict, where a pedes- current warrant as well as the signal warranting practices of
trian begins to cross in front of a vehicle stopped in the other countries. In reviewing all traffic control signal war-
near lane but then has to avoid a vehicle in a subsequent rants, the research team noted several inconsistencies between
lane that has not stopped. The participant advocated a dif- the pedestrian warrant and vehicle-based warrants. For
ferent set of criteria for pedestrian signals on multi-lane example, the pedestrian warrant provides a single pedestrian
streets. volume criterion, regardless of the major-street vehicle vol-
· The participants considered the following factors during ume being crossed, whereas vehicle-based warrants provide a
the evaluation of the eight intersections: "sliding scale" where fewer minor-street vehicles are required
Pedestrian volume (92 percent); as the major-street vehicle volume increases. Additionally,
Traffic volume (77 percent); vehicle-based warrants permit a vehicle volume reduction to
Speed (operating or posted) on major street (46 percent); 70 percent when major-street vehicle speeds exceed 40 mph
Number of lanes on major street (23 percent); (70 km/h). The research team conducted a workshop to
Other[opportunity for median refuge, crossing dis- gather engineering judgment about proposed revisions to the
tance, or other possible treatment (23 percent)]; pedestrian warrant. In their judgment, most traffic engineers
Crash history (8 percent); at the workshop believed the following should be considered
Intersection versus midblock (8 percent); in a revised pedestrian warrant: width of roadway being
Distance to nearest signal (8 percent); and crossed, the pedestrian volume, the major-street vehicle vol-
Vehicular gaps available (8 percent). ume, and the major-street speed. The research team used
· When asked what other factors should be included in the these findings to develop the proposed recommendations for
MUTCD, the only factor they listed (and that was not a revised pedestrian warrant for traffic control signals (see
listed as being used in the evaluation of the eight sites-- Appendix B).
