Characterization of Motor Vehicle–Pedestrian Fatalities in Urban Arterial Corridor

Pedestrian fatalities worldwide are a social and governmental concern. During the last decade, pedestrian fatalities in Puerto Rico represent an average of 31% of all traffic related fatalities which is almost 300% as compared to the national figure of 11% in the United States as reported by the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Motor Vehicle – Pedestrian Crash fatalities were evaluated on the PR-2 Urban Corridor located on the Western Region of the island. This urban corridor is part of the National Highway System. Hazardous segments based upon pedestrian crash data were determined. A database was developed using the Puerto Rico Police Department crash records of the nine municipalities comprising the region. The city of Mayagüez has the highest frequency of pedestrian fatal crashes of the region with 42%. The highest frequency of pedestrian crashes in the region occurred during the month of July and the peak hours were between 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Cross tabulation showed that the highest incidence of pedestrian crashes were located between kilometers 154 to 156 on PR-2 Urban Corridor in Mayagüez with the highest concentration of public residential housing, elementary and high schools and government services on this eight lane urban arterial. Observational studies performed on this segment indicated the lack of pedestrian refuge island in the wide intersection with more than three lanes per direction and only 12 seconds provided to pedestrians to clear the crosswalk.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Pedestrians.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Colucci, Benjamín
  • Valle, Dafne
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 12p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Crash causes; Crash data; Fatalities; High risk locations; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Urban highways
• Geographic Terms: Mayaguez (Puerto Rico); Puerto Rico
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01515971
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-4444
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 26 2014 10:38AM