Pedestrian Level of Traffic Stress (PLTS) Application and Validation

Details

• Creators:
  Schneider, Robert J. ; Swift, Sydney ; Sanders, Rebecca ; Almdale, Brian ; Barbee, Henry ; Thorne, Kyle ; Sveen, Carl ; Hemze, Nathanael ; Ogunniyi, Olanrewaju Emmanuel ; Nelson, Kyle
• Corporate Creators:
  Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety (CPBS) Tier-1 University Transportation Center (UTC) ; University of New Mexico
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program ; United States. Department of Transportation. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Crash locations
  • Mapping
  • Methodology
  • Pedestrian safety
  • Pedestrian-vehicle crashes
  • Physiological stress
• Publication/ Report Number:
  24UWM05
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Wisconsin
• Edition:
  Final Report (June 2025)
• Corporate Publisher:
  Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety (CPBS) Tier-1 University Transportation Center (UTC)
• Abstract:
  In this Year 2 project, we use three complementary approaches to assess how well our Year 1 CPBS Pedestrian Level of Traffic Stress (PLTS) method works in practice and how well it represents stress reported by survey participants. First, we received feedback from more than two dozen practitioners who attended PLTS presentations or applied the Year 1 PLTS in their own communities. They generally had positive comments about the PLTS method but also made several helpful suggestions for improvement. Second, we collected the required inputs and calculated PLTS ratings along roadway corridors in three case study communities and compared intersection crossing stress ratings from our CPBS PLTS method with an alternative Safe Streets PLTS method. Both methods provided PLTS ratings that generally matched our expectations. We also found general agreement between how the CPBS PLTS and Safe Streets PLTS methods ranked intersections from low to high stress, but the CPBS method tends to generate higher stress ratings at specific intersections. Third, we developed an online PLTS National Survey that asked participants to rate the stress that they would feel as a pedestrian when crossing roadways and walking along segments based on videos, pictures, and descriptions. Our preliminary analysis of nearly 1,800 responses showed that survey respondent stress ratings are similar to the CPBS PLTS rating for the baseline crossing scenario but lower than the CPBS PLTS rating for the baseline segment scenario. All three types of assessment will help us create a refined PLTS Version 2.0.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  69A3552348336
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/93236/dot_93236_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.94 MB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:22c7eee6970ac308ca1d1ffc37359e8e0789321f85a8f5cd189ec7c1f3e96d5ce7be7dff72e93938e34967fb1806fbbb1b2c509386b8a10068a7cb8326be96e4