Guidance to Improve Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety at Intersections (2020)

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1 GUIDANCE TO IMPROVE PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLIST SAFETY AT INTERSECTIONS Guidance to Improve Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety at Intersections: Summary Background Organizations across the United States are seeking to improve transportation safety for all modes. Improving pedestrian and bicyclist safety is increasingly important, as these vulnerable roadway users represent almost 20 percent of traffic fatalities despite making many fewer trips proportionally than motorists (NHTSA 2018; see Figure A). With the adoption of safety efforts such as Vision Zero, Toward Zero Deaths, and the Safe System approach by numerous jurisdictions throughout North America, along with their adoption of mobility goals that aim to increase pedestrian and bicyclist travel for health, environmental, system efficiency, and equity reasons, practitioners are increasingly attuned to the need to pay attention to pedestrian and bicyclist safety. However, despite the wealth of safety resources that exist today, many jurisdictions would benefit from additional help with countermeasure selection to address known safety problems. Some resources provide many options without sufficient help for refining those options, while other resources are specific to selected problems and cannot be widely applied. This Guide seeks to fill these gaps by providing a succinct process for countermeasure selection that helps practitioners understand important questions and considerations for choosing the right countermeasure(s) for their situation. In doing so, this Guide does not seek to replace current countermeasure or safety resources, but rather build on the strengths of these resources, citing them where applicable, and working to tie them together in a coherent way for practitioners. The Guide is relevant to a range of contexts (e.g., facility types, land use patterns, travel speeds) and will help practitioners: • Understand the difference between reactive and proactive (systemic) safety approaches; • Understand the importance of creating safe and comfortable intersection conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists; • Identify safety issues and problems for pedestrians and bicyclists; • Understand data needs and data limitations related to bicyclist and pedestrian safety; • Understand the trade-offs between safety, comfort, and operations for different road users; • Provide strategies to determine modal priorities to facilitate decision-making; • Assess high-level safety and operational performance of intersections; and • Choose appropriate countermeasures, countermeasure combinations, and policies to address identified safety issues and goals. This Guide focuses specifically on intersection countermeasure options because intersections have more potential countermeasures to consider for pedestrians and bicyclists than mid-segment locations. It focuses on countermeasures that address the top five crash types for pedestrians and the top seven crash types for bicyclists, representing 79 percent of pedestrian fatalities and 55 percent Figure A.  Deaths from Motor Vehicle Crashes, by Mode Note: Data exclude nonvehicle occupants not classified as pedestrians or bicyclists. These “unclassified” fatalities represent less than 1 percent of annual traffic-related fatalities. Source: Fatality Analysis Reporting System (NHTSA 2018) 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Vehicle Occupant Fatalities Motorcyclist Fatalities Bicyclist Fatalities Pedestrian Fatalities

2 GUIDANCE TO IMPROVE PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLIST SAFETY AT INTERSECTIONS of bicyclist fatalities. An overarching objective is to provide practitioners with fundamental safety, operations, and design principles to develop intersections that address safety needs and match community expectations. However, these principles can be applied to roadway segments as well. This Guide also covers the potential for practitioners to shift from focusing on specific locations where pedestrian and bicyclist crashes have occurred (reactive or “hot spot” safety) to identifying intersection types and characteristics that have a higher risk of crashes in the future (proactive or “systemic” safety). This approach is particularly applicable to pedestrian and bicycle crashes, which often occur throughout the network in low numbers, yet may demonstrate similar patterns among crash locations. The proactive approach helps support public agency goals to support walking and bicycling usage while improving pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Once potential risk factors have been identified, this Guide can be used to help retrofit safe crossings to address these risks. Guide Organization Each of the Guide’s chapters is useful as an individual resource; however, the Guide is organized sequentially to provide insight into the safety identification process from beginning (framing the problem) to end (countermeasure selection), following the steps shown in Figure B. These steps are covered in the various chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Frame the Process provides a high-level explanation of the key considerations and decisions needed at the outset to ensure a smooth, coordinated effort to address safety. Chapter 2: Identify and Collect the Data for Analysis explores necessary and optional data types and sources for analyzing and understanding pedestrian and bicyclist safety and risk at intersections. Chapter 3: Analyze Intersection Safety and Identify Issues presents strategies and methods for using the data and sources identified in Chapter 2 to assess intersection safety and identify risk factors. Figure B.  General Assessment and Approach to Countermeasure Selection Identify Treatment Options for Creating Safer Intersections Countermeasure Options Final Countermeasure Selection Evaluate Priorities and Assess Trade-Offs and Viability 4566 Frame the Process Analyze Intersection Safety and Identify Issues Identify and Collect the Data for Analysis 1 2 3Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Refine the

3 GUIDANCE TO IMPROVE PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLIST SAFETY AT INTERSECTIONS Chapter 4: Identify Treatment Options for Creating Safer Intersections explains how to use identified crash characteristics, risk factors, and other criteria to select potential countermeasures for bicyclists and pedestrians at intersections. Chapter 5: Refine the Countermeasure Options focuses on considering the needs of bicyclists, pedestrians, and other road users in combination within the land use and transportation context to help refine the countermeasure options. Chapter 6: Final Countermeasure Selection covers the last two steps of the process, featuring a framework for considering the tradeoffs and effects of safety countermeasures and design improvements that allows agencies to consider benefit-cost calculations and other performance outcomes. This information will help the practitioner finalize the countermeasure selection for an identified location. Chapter 7: Conclusions and Epilogue summarizes highlights from the Guide and provides a brief overview of the importance of project evaluation as an epilogue to the countermeasure selection process. Appendix: Countermeasure Glossary expands on the countermeasures covered in Chapter 4 by providing key information for practitioners to consider when applying Chapters 5 and 6 to refine and finalize countermeasure options.