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WalkSanDiego conducts or sponsors occasional training on
pedestrian design and traffic calming for traffic engineers
and transportation planners. The following list responds to
the need we have often heard that there is no central repository
for guidance documents and research. We welcome additional
reviews or recommendations of other publications from professionals
in the field.
The following valuable resources were obtained from www.walkinginfo.org, which is made available by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center:
Important Research Papers
Herms, Bruce. 1972. Pedestrian Crosswalk Study: Accidents
in Painted and Unpainted Crosswalks, Transportation Research
Record No. 406, Transportation Research Board, Washington,
DC.
This oft-quoted, and usually misinterpreted study examined
the pedestrian crash rates of painted versus unpainted crosswalks
in San Diego. Herms' speculation that painted crosswalks confer
a "false sense of security" and therefore cause
higher pedestrian crash rates has been disproven by more detailed
and larger studies. Still the paper serves as a warning not
to paint a crosswalk without carefully considering whether
the location will require additional safety features to make
crossing safe.
Knoblauch, R.L., Nitzburg, M., and Seifert, R.F., 1999.
Pedestrian Crosswalk Case Studies, Federal Highway
Administration, Washington, DC.
This study examined the behavior of pedestrians and motorists
as the pedestrians crossed in painted and unpainted crosswalks.
Pedestrians were found to be no more or less cautious in the
two situations, while motorists were more cautious where there
was a painted crosswalk. These results contradict the speculation
of Herms (1972) that crosswalks provide a "false sense
of security" to pedestrians, causing them to relax caution
while crossing a street.
Zegeer, Charles, J. Richard Stewart, Herman H. Huang,
and Peter A. Lagerwey. 2002. Safety Effects of Marked
vs. Unmarked Crosswalks at Uncontrolled Locations, Federal
Highway Administration, Washington, DC.
To quote from this report's abstract: "The study results
revealed that on two-lane roads, the presence of a marked
crosswalk alone at an uncontrolled location was associated
with no difference in pedestrian crash rate, compared to an
unmarked crosswalk. Further, on multi-lane roads with traffic
volumes above about 12,000 vehicles per day, having a marked
crosswalk alone (without other substantial improvements) was
associated with a higher pedestrian crash rate (after controlling
for other site factors) compared to an unmarked crosswalk.
Raised medians provided significantly lower pedestrian crash
rates on multi-lane roads, compared to roads with no raised
median. Older pedestrians had crashes that were high relative
to their crossing exposure. More substantial improvements
were recommended to provide for safer pedestrian crossings
on certain roads, such as adding traffic signals with pedestrian
signals when warranted, providing raised medians, speed-reducing
measures, and others."
Nolan, Robert. 2003. Traffic fatalities and injuries:
the effect of changes in infrastructure and other trends.
Accident Analysis and Prevention, 35 (2003): 599-611.
This seminal study examined thousands of crashes in all 50
states over a 14-year period. The statistical model eliminated
a bias inherent in similar studies by accounting for all known
crash factors. The results show that typical "safety"
improvements such as adding and widening lanes have actually
increased rather than decreased injuries and fatalities. Such
improvements tend to increase speed and simplify the driving
task, possibly making drivers less cautious. Measured crash
reductions are rather due to seat belt use, better medical
care, reduced alcohol consumption, and increased average age
of drivers.
Litman, Todd. 2004. Whose Roads? Defining Bicyclists'
and Pedestrians' Right to Use Public Roadways, Victoria
Transport Policy Institute. Downloadable at http://www.vtpi.org/whoserd.pdf
Many people believe that non-motorized modes (walking, cycling,
and their variations) have an inferior right to use public
roads compared with motor vehicles. This reflects the belief
that motor vehicles are more important to society than non-motorized
modes, and that roads are funded by motorists. This paper
investigates these assumptions. It finds that non-motorized
modes have the legal right to use public roads, that non-motorized
modes provide significant transportation benefits, and pedestrians
and cyclists pay a significant share of roadway costs. Although
motorist user fees (fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees)
fund most highway expenses, funding for local roads (the roads
pedestrians and cyclists use most) originates mainly from
general taxes. Since bicycling and walking impose lower roadway
costs than motorized modes, people who rely primarily on non-motorized
modes tend to overpay their fair share of roadway costs and
subsidize motorists.
Residential Street Design
Homburger, W. Deakin, E. Bosselmann, R. Smith, and Beukers.
1989. Residential Street Design and Traffic Control,
Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE).
Residential Streets, 3rd Edition, American Society
of Civil Engineers, ITE, National Association of Home Builders,
and the Urban Land Institute, 2001.
Traditional Neighborhood Development: Street Design Guidelines,
ITE 1999.
Residential
Street Typology and Injury Accident Frequency [8-page
PDF]
Peter Swift, P. E., Dan Painter, AICP, Matthew Goldstein
This paper compared accident frequency rates on streets of
different widths in Longmont, Colorado. It revealed a dramatic
increase in injury accident frequency as street width increases.
By far, the safest residential street width was 24'. This
finding calls into question the standard 36'-40' widths typical
in the San Diego region.
Major Urban Streets
Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities,
ITE & Congress for New Urbanism. 2006.
The 255-page draft manual, released in March 2006 as proposed
guidance pending further comments, is titled "Context
Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares
for Walkable Communities." Recognizing the place for
cars, transit, bikes and pedestrians on arterial and collector
streets, it gives planners and designers guidance for interpreting
existing American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials (AASHTO) "Green Book" policy. View the
manual at no cost or order it for $30 at www.cnu.org.
Design examples include a high-capacity thoroughfare in an
urbanizing area; creating a retail-oriented main street; transforming
a suburban arterial; and converting a central business district
from four to three lanes. Topics include on-street parking
configuration and width; mid-block crossings and pedestrian
refuge islands; snow removal; curb return radii; and modern
roundabouts.
General Street Design
Burden, Dan, with Michael Wallwork, Ken Sides, Ramon Trias,
and Harrison Bright Rue. 1999. Street Design Guidelines
for Healthy Neighborhoods, Local Government Commission
Center for Livable Communities.
Dan Burden and his team examined streets in older, traditional
neighborhoods, specifically those that seem to serve traffic
effectively while encouraging low speeds and safety for other
users. The result is this deceptively simple guidebook for
every type of street imaginable, most of which are narrower
and far safer than conventional standards allow.
Pedestrian Design Guidelines
San Diego Association of Governments, 2002. Planning
and Designing for Pedestrians: Model Guidelines for the San
Diego Region. Community Design + Architecture, Inc. and
W-Trans.
Traffic Calming Guidelines
WalkSanDiego. 2003. Slow Down! Taming Neighborhood
Traffic. Produced in cooperation with the San Diego County
Air Pollution Control District, and the California Center
for Injury Prevention. Order form on WalkSanDiego.org
Home Page.
Burden, Dan and Paul Zykovsky. 2001. Emergency
Response: Traffic Calming and Traditional Neighborhood Streets.
Walkable Communities, Inc. and Local Government Commission,
Center for Livable Communities. Order from the Local Government
Commission, www.lgc.org.
Burden, Dan. 2000. Streets and Sidewalks, People
and Cars: The Citizen's Guide to Traffic Calming, Local
Government Commission, Center for Livable Communities.
City of Encinitas. 2003. Traffic Calming Guidelines
City of Carlsbad. 2001. Residential Traffic Management
Program. Available from the Carlsbad Engineering Department,
Transportation Division. Phone (760) 602-2752.
City of San Diego. 2006. Traffic Calming Program
Handbook, prepared by Fehr and Peers and Katz Okitsu and
Associates.
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