Pedestrian Safety in the NYMTC Region

2007PDFResearch PaperMcKnight, Claire E.Mouskos, KyriacosKamga, CamilleHardej, ChrisAhmed, AizazCity University of New York. Institute for Transportation SystemsNew York Metropolitan Transportation Council. Safety Advisory Work Group AdvisorsNew York Metropolitan Transportation CouncilNew York Metropolitan Transportation CouncilNew YorkPedestrian safetyTraffic safetyCountermeasuresPublic private partnershipsIn April 2000, NYMTC established the Safety Advisory Working Group (SAWG) to provide a forum to facilitate interagency discussion, exchange information, address safety and advise its members on issues dealing with transportation safety. SAWG is also tasked with enhancing and expanding safety planning in all elements of NYMTC\u2019s metropolitan transportation planning process, including NYMTC\u2019s plans, programs, and activities. Due to the events of September 11, 2001, SAWG was not able to hold its first meeting until January 2003. The first task of the SAWG was to identify the priority safety topics that the members would want to address. Pedestrian safety was by far the leading topic of concern among the agencies and therefore selected as the first topic to be studied. The first step for the study was to determine the status of pedestrian safety and the related investment needs in the region. This report identifies the pedestrian safety issues and recommended countermeasures to improve pedestrian safety in the region. The method was to interview the agencies and organizations within the region about their existing activities and perceptions of the issue. This project will develop the Pedestrian Safety Plan in collaboration with the NYMTC members and will be incorporated into the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The Pedestrian Safety Plan will periodically be updated along with the update of the RTP. The second product of the study was to be a sourcebook on pedestrian safety strategies and technologies, based on the research findings reported by state and local agencies and the literature review of independent research organizations. Instead of creating a separate document, descriptions of countermeasures for addressing pedestrian safety issues and their effectiveness are included in Chapter 5. Additionally, Appendix D contains an annotated bibliography of the best on-line sources of information on pedestrian safety. The organization of this report, which summarizes the result of the study, is outlined here. The rest of this chapter discusses the importance of pedestrian safety and describes how the study was conducted. The second chapter presents statistics on pedestrian safety in the region and contrasts regional characteristics with national characteristics. The third chapter describes the governmental and private non-profit organizations that are involved in pedestrian safety in the NYMTC region. It also includes sections on the state of pedestrian crash data. The fourth chapter describes the pedestrian safety issues that were identified during the interviews and public meetings. The fifth chapter describes countermeasures for improving pedestrian safety, and the sixth chapter is a brief summary of funding sources. The last chapter includes recommendations for improving pedestrian safety in the region.131