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Safety is the number one priority for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and it's the agency's policy to provide safe and effective pedestrian accommodation wherever possible. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) encourages the use of specific proven pedestrian safety countermeasures that can help achieve local, State and National safety goals.
A classic Road Diet converts an existing four-lane undivided roadway segment to a three-lane segment consisting of two through lanes and a center two-way left turn lane (TWLTL). A Road Diet improves safety by including a protected left-turn lane for mid-block left-turning motorists, reducing crossing distance for pedestrians, and reducing travel speeds that decrease crash severity. Additionally, the Road Diet provides an opportunity to allocate excess roadway width to other purposes, including bicycle lanes, on-street parking, or transit stops.
This manual provides a compendium of best practices to help transportation professionals improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and access to transit, including information on evaluating, planning for, and implementing improvements to pedestrian and bicycle access to transit. In addition to covering key concepts such as access sheds, connected networks, and station area comfort, safety, and legibility, the manual covers needs specific to pedestrians, such as complete sidewalks and safe, convenient crossings, and to bicyclists, such as bicycle parking and on-transit accommodations.
A crash modification factor (CMF) is a multiplicative factor used to compute the expected number of crashes after implementing a given countermeasure at a specific site. The Crash Modification Factors Clearinghouse houses a Web-based database of CMFs along with supporting documentation to help transportation engineers identify the most appropriate countermeasure for their safety needs. Using this site, you can search to find CMFs or submit your own CMFs to be included in the clearinghouse.
This document contains a series of Issue Briefs on various intersection safety-related topics. This is the Second Edition of these briefs. The target audience for the Issue Briefs consists of traffic engineers and transportation and safety professionals. Many products have developed over the past two years that will help practitioners evaluate causes of intersection crashes and potential solutions. The Issue Briefs provide practitioners with a substantial number of references and resources for subsequent review and consideration.
In January 2012, FHWA issued a “Guidance Memorandum on Promoting the Implementation of Proven Safety Countermeasures”. This guidance takes into consideration the latest safety research to advance a group of countermeasures that have shown great effectiveness in improving safety. Safety practitioners are encouraged to consider this set of countermeasures that are research-proven, but not widely applied on a national basis.
GHSA's Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2020 Preliminary Data and subsequent addendum offer the first comprehensive look at state and national trends in pedestrian deaths for the full year (January-December). The report projects the U.S. pedestrian fatality rate per billion vehicle miles traveled (VMT) jumped to 2.3 deaths in 2020 – an unprecedented 21% increase from 1.9 in 2019.
A crash modification factor (CMF) is a multiplicative factor used to compute the expected number of crashes after implementing a given countermeasure at a specific site. The Crash Modification Factors Clearinghouse houses a Web-based database of CMFs along with supporting documentation to help transportation engineers identify the most appropriate countermeasure for their safety needs. Using this site, you can search to find CMFs or submit your own CMFs to be included in the clearinghouse.
A crash modification factor (CMF) is a multiplicative factor used to compute the expected number of crashes after implementing a given countermeasure at a specific site. The Crash Modification Factors Clearinghouse houses a Web-based database of CMFs along with supporting documentation to help transportation engineers identify the most appropriate countermeasure for their safety needs. Using this site, you can search to find CMFs or submit your own CMFs to be included in the clearinghouse.
FHWA Newsletter on pedestrian safety