Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Evaluation in a SMART Corridor

David R. PhD Ragland and O’Connor, Terri

Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley

Abstract: The San Pablo/I-80 corridor is a “SMART” transportation corridor that extends about 20 miles along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay. The corridor uses Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies to increase and enhance transportation mobility. The goal of the SMART Corridor Plan was to improve vehicle mobility throughout the corridor. Since the plan focused almost exclusively on vehicular traffic, achieving these goals has the potential to raise the risk of injury to pedestrians and bicyclists without thorough analysis of the overall effects of the SMART corridor implementation. This study identifies and describes multiple factors that may affect the behavior of pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers along the corridor. This report focuses on findings for the Berkeley sector. The evaluation utilized multiple types of data collection including vehicle counts, field observations, field inspections, and collision data. Researchers inspected the physical elements of each intersection and observed driver, pedestrian, and bicyclist behavior. Analysis of these data led to a typology, used to assign context-specific safety interventions, many of which involve engineering and enforcement. The main goal is to ensure that motorists as well as pedestrians and bicyclists should have a sense that all have an equal right to travel in the area. This can be accomplished through clear and consistent signage, a distinctive crosswalk treatment, consistent lighting and other enhancements. Implementation of the recommended countermeasures and follow up analysis are not part of this baseline study. A detailed traffic engineering analysis would be required to produce estimates of costs and benefits, and to determine priorities.

Keywords: Engineering; Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways California; Pedestrians; Pedestrian Detectors; Risk Analysis; Safety; Traffic Accidents; Traffic Signals; Traffic Signs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-10-01
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