Bicyclist and Pedestrian Safety in Work Zones: Recent Advances and Future Directions

Pedestrian and bicyclist safety and mobility is a significant concern in work zones. The issues of safety and mobility are intertwined: current work zone designs often simultaneously impede pedestrian mobility and encourage unnecessary risk‐taking. Although fatal crash rates have generally been falling in the United States, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data indicates that the number of pedestrians and bicyclists involved in work zone crashes remained essentially unchanged from 2003‐2012. Almost 17% of work zone fatalities involved a pedestrian or bicyclist. The authors’ evaluation of 219 ped/bike crashes that occurred in Wisconsin work zones over a 10 year period indicates that many of the crashes involve workers on foot, discontinuous or inadequate physical accommodations, or construction‐related visual obstructions. To address these safety and mobility issues the authors recommend more consistent consideration of ped/bike accommodations during the project design phase, rather than defering these decisions to the construction phase when there are fewer feasible solutions.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB55 Standing Committee on Work Zone Traffic Control.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Shaw, John W
  • Chitturi, Madhav V
  • Han, Youngjun
  • Bremer, William
  • Noyce, David A
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle crashes; Cyclists; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Work zone safety; Work zones
• Uncontrolled Terms: Bicycle safety
• Geographic Terms: Wisconsin
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I52: Construction of Pavements and Surfacings; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01587779
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-1471
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 27 2016 5:11PM