Understanding Pedestrian and Bicyclist Compliance and Safety Impacts of Walk Modes at Signalized Intersections for a Livable Community

With increasing energy costs as well as rampant congestion in major U.S. cities, the popularity of walk and bike mode choices has increased in recent years. NHTSA has estimated that, in 2011, 11.1% of pedestrian fatalities and 18.5% of bicyclist fatalities in the United States occurred in Florida, although the state accounted for just 6.1% of the nation's population. In addition, intersections are hot spots for vehicle–pedestrian conflicts. This finding has been confirmed by FHWA's estimate that in the United States nearly one in five pedestrian fatalities occurs at an intersection. Because signalized and nonsignalized intersections are conflict points for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists, traffic control methods to ensure that safety is not compromised are essential. For the examination of the safety effects of walk modes at signalized intersections, four locations in the Tampa Bay area were chosen. Two of the locations operated with rest in walk and pedestrian recall, and the other two operated without rest in walk and pedestrian recall. The study collected a total of 26 h of data in early 2013 at the four study sites, with a yield of 202 pedestrian and bicyclist observations. The behaviors were modeled with a multinomial logit model. The modeling found that the presence of rest in walk and pedestrian recall on minor street pedestrian phases, which operated concurrently with major street vehicle phases, encouraged higher pedestrian and bicyclist compliance rates. The presence or absence of the combination of rest in walk and pedestrian recall was found to be the most influential variable examined.