Pedestrian Safety and Transit Corridors
Source: Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC), Washington State Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration
"This research examines the relationship between pedestrian accident locations on state-owned facilities (highways and urban arterials) and the presence of rider boardings and alightings from bus transit. Many state facilities are important metropolitan transit corridors with large numbers of bus stops users, so that these facilities expose higher numbers of pedestrian to traffic and an increased number of collisions. The research also examines the association between pedestrian collisions and other pedestrian travel generators, such as concentrations of retail activity and housing, as well as environmental conditions such as wide roadways, high traffic volumes, and high speed limits.
"On the basis of a retrospective sampling approach and logistic regression models, the study shows that bus stop usage is strongly associated with pedestrian collisions along state facilities. Less strong but significant associations are shown to exist between retail location and size, traffic volume and number of traffic lanes, and locations with high levels of pedestrian-vehicle collisions. The findings suggest that facilities with high numbers of bus riders need to accommodate people walking safely along and across the roadway. They support the development of state DOT programs for multi-modal facilities that integrate travel modes in major regional facilities within local suburban communities and pay specific attention to the role of transit in shaping the demand for non-motorized travel on the facilities. Also, state DOT, local jurisdiction, and transit staff must work together to identify facilities and locations where bus riders are at risk and take appropriate steps to ensure pedestrian safety."
