Evaluation of Protected Left-Turn Phasing and Leading Pedestrian Intervals Effects on Pedestrian Safety

Pedestrian safety is an important public health issue for the United States, with pedestrian fatalities representing approximately 16% of all traffic-related fatalities in 2016. Nationwide, transportation agencies are increasing their efforts to implement engineering-based improvements that increase pedestrian safety. These agencies need statistically rigorous crash modification factors (CMFs) to demonstrate the safety effectiveness of such countermeasures, and to apply in benefit–cost analyses to justify their implementation. This study focused on developing CMFs for two countermeasures that show promise for improving pedestrian safety: protected or protected/permissive left-turn phasing, and leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs). Data were acquired from four North American cities that had installed one or both of the countermeasures of interest: Chicago, IL; New York City, NY; Charlotte, NC; and Toronto, ON. The empirical Bayes before–after study design was applied to estimate the change in expected crash frequency for crashes following treatment. The protected left-turn phasing evaluation showed a benefit in reducing vehicle–vehicle injury crashes, but did not produce statistically significant results for vehicle–pedestrian crashes. For those crashes a disaggregate analysis did reveal that this treatment could be especially beneficial where pedestrian volumes exceed 5,500 per day. The LPI evaluation showed a statistically significant reduction in vehicle–pedestrian crashes with an estimated CMF of 0.87.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981211025508
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03611981
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Elissa Goughnour https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6675-2713 © National Academy of Sciences: Transportation Research Board 2021.
• Authors:
  • Goughnour, Elissa
  • 0000-0001-6675-2713
  • Carter, Daniel
  • Lyon, Craig
  • 0000-0003-3726-3632
  • Persaud, Bhagwant
  • 0000-0002-8404-9236
  • Lan, Bo
  • Chun, Piljin
  • 0000-0001-7989-370X
  • Hamilton, Ian
  • 0000-0003-0949-5495
  • Signor, Kari
  • Bryson, Meg
  • 0000-0002-0684-7937
• Publication Date: 2021-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 1219-1228
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Volume: 2675
  • Issue Number: 11
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0361-1981
  • EISSN: 2169-4052
  • Serial URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/trr

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Crash modification factors; Left turn phase; Pedestrian clearance interval (Traffic signals); Pedestrian safety
• Geographic Terms: Charlotte (North Carolina); Chicago (Illinois); New York (New York); Toronto (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01778702
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 5 2021 9:19AM