Pedestrian Safety at Signalized Intersections - A Balancing Act

Balancing the safety and mobility of pedestrians and motorists in an urban environment requires a comprehensive look at the interaction between motorists and pedestrians at signalized intersections. As part of a multifaceted approach to enhancing pedestrian safety at signalized intersections, a study was conducted for the City of Pasadena to assess and improve pedestrian safety at signalized intersections. A toolbox, based on best practices, was developed including physical and operational countermeasures for signalized locations. Operational elements for signalized locations such as peak hour pedestrian recall, leading pedestrian interval, and the scramble phase were included as part of this toolbox. The City has used their toolbox to implement several pedestrian safety treatments at signalized intersections. Combined with an education campaign and increased enforcement, the City has experienced reductions in pedestrian collisions. However, through this process, the City has identified that some measures intended to enhance pedestrian safety can adversely impact intersection operations. For instance, the leading pedestrian interval helps improve pedestrian visibility but it decreases the amount of time available to vehicular movements. Tradeoffs must be considered and studied to determine the effectiveness in achieving a variety of goals in an urban transportation network including level of service, safety, and multimodal integration. This paper will provide a review of the proposed measures and a discussion of methods for further evaluation such as before/after studies and micro-simulation that can be used to get a better understanding of multi-modal operational impacts.