Safety effects of marked vs. unmarked crosswalks at uncontrolled locations : executive summary and recommended guidelines.

Details

• Creators:
  Zegeer, Charles V. ; Stewart, J. Richard ; Huang, Herman H. ; Lagerwey, Peter A.
• Corporate Creators:
  University of North Carolina (System). Highway Safety Research Center
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Safety Research and Development
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Pedestrian areas
  • Sidewalks
  • Crosswalks
  • Pedestrian safety
  • Access
  • Guidelines
  • Highway safety
  • Pedestrian injuries
  • Pedestrian safety
  • Recommendations
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA-RD-01-075
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Final report; Oct. 1996-March 2001.
• Corporate Publisher:
  Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center
• Abstract:
  Pedestrians are legitimate users of the transportation system, and they should, therefore, be able to use this system ; safely. Pedestrian needs in crossing streets should be identified, and appropriate solutions should be selected to improve ; pedestrian safety and access. Deciding where to mark crosswalks is only one consideration in meeting that objective. ; This study involved an analysis of 5 years of pedestrian crashes at 1,000 marked crosswalks and 1,000 matched ; unmarked comparison sites. All sites in this study had no traffic signal or stop sign on the approaches. Detailed data ; were collected on traffic volume, pedestrian exposure, number of lanes, median type, speed limit, and other site ; variables. Poisson and negative binomial regressive models were used. ; The study results revealed that on two-lane roads, the presence of a marked crosswalk alone at an uncontrolled ; location was associated with no difference in pedestrian crash rate, compared to an unmarked crosswalk. Further, on ; multi-lane roads with traffic volumes above about 12,000 vehicles per day, having a marked crosswalk alone (without ; other substantial improvements) was associated with a higher pedestrian crash rate (after controlling for other site ; factors) compared to an unmarked crosswalk. Raised medians provided significantly lower pedestrian crash rates on ; multi-lane roads, compared to roads with no raised median. Older pedestrians had crashes that were high relative to their ; crossing exposure. ; More substantial improvements were recommended to provide for safer pedestrian crossings on certain roads, such ; as adding traffic signals with pedestrian signals when warranted, providing raised medians, speed-reducing measures, ; and others.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTFH61-92-C-00138
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/15480/dot_15480_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 728.01 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Federal Highway Administration ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:81fd358c75309b128d637f0ca4edcfbdcc0af41fa7a1f0bb2c613ae9581c46b43559bf67d7281c7a0bb2b05d84cc55fd6ee842bf924ce35f239bff5f05943341