Safety Effects and Guideline Development for Uncontrolled Midblock Crosswalks

This paper proposes a set of guidelines for marking midblock crosswalks at uncontrolled locations along Florida’s State Highway System through a comprehensive process. The paper summarizes previous research on the effect of crosswalk markings on pedestrian-vehicle collision risks. The paper sets up a simple model of pedestrian-vehicle collision risks and applies the model to identify three mechanisms that help explain why crosswalk markings may lead to higher pedestrian-vehicle collision risks and to identify engineering treatments to counter these mechanisms. The guidelines are structured to avoid gaps in applicability that would make their implementation difficult. The guidelines include all midblock locations with a well established demand, adequate sight distance and lighting. The guidelines include a spreadsheet tool for estimating the likelihood of a new midblock crosswalk being used and take into account available evidence that crosswalk markings appear to increase pedestrian-vehicle collision risks under certain conditions as well as uncertainty in that evidence. The guidelines are designed to be provisional and include a monitoring process for implemented midblock crosswalks at uncontrolled locations.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

  Washington, DC  United States 

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Chu, Xuehao
  • Lin, Pei-Sung
  • Kourtellis, Achilleas
• Conference:
  • ITE 2008 Technical Conference and Exhibit
  • Location: Miami FL, United States
  • Date: 2008-3-30 to 2008-4-2
• Publication Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: Compendium of Technical Papers. ITE 2008 Technical Conference and Exhibit, March 30-April 2, 2008, Miami, Florida

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash risk forecasting; Crosswalks; Midblock crossings; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Road markings; Safety engineering
• Geographic Terms: Florida
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01109099
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 22 2008 8:43AM