NMDOT Pedestrian Safety on Arterials
Project Description
The objective of this research is to identify and evaluate strategies for improving pedestrian safety on arterial roadways. This will be accomplished through analyses of countermeasures that were installed on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, NM. Countermeasures will include a BRT system, road diet, and HAWK signals. We will analyze changes in crash frequency and crash rates for the BRT and HAWK signals, changes in vehicle speeds for the BRT and road diet, changes in pedestrian behavior for the HAWK signals, and changes to vehicle exposure for the BRT and road diet.
We will consider treatments in different land use and road design contexts so that the findings may be extrapolated to other arterials in other cities across the state, region, and country. The deliverable from this project will be a final report detailing traffic safety best practices for pedestrians and other road users relative to specific countermeasures, land use configurations, and roadway design configurations. The potential implementation of this research is high as this project has developed results that can be used immediately by departments of transportation (DOTs) to avoid pedestrian and other motor vehicle collisions. The exploration of solutions to the recent increase in pedestrian injuries and fatalities provides new knowledge to the field of transportation.
This project is a collaborative project with NMDOT because they are providing cost share for CPBS. This NMDOT project will be a Year 2 extension of a project for which we have already completed Year 1 and will consist of an analysis of APD data regarding alcohol and drug arrests, an analysis of police reports for speeding and turning-related crashes, changes to street lighting along critical corridors and how those changes related to safety outcomes, research into APD's definition of 'Failed to Yield Right of Way', exploration of bi-directional BRT lanes, and investigating crashes involving parked vehicles. Findings will then be applied to state roads across New Mexico and recommendations will be made for project prioritization and design interventions.
Outputs
The expected deliverables are a final report and a policy brief (that will allow for easy interpretation of results by cities, regions, and states). We will pare the final report into at least three academic papers. The final report, policy brief, and any published papers will be published on the CPBS website and on TRID. We will also disseminate findings through the social media accounts of CPBS and the PIs. We will provide the deliverables to NMDOT so they can also share widely. Results will be integrated into workforce development trainings through our collaboration with NM LTAP, the NM Summer Transportation Institute, and NMSU IRD. We will also present findings at conferences including TRB, APBP, ITE, and/or the NM Paving and Transportation Conference.
Outcomes/Impacts
We anticipate that the outputs from this research project will inform policymakers on where and how to prioritize resources and investments into multimodal transportation safety efforts. This will directly improve safety and, by enabling more multimodal transportation, improve reliability and durability of US transportation systems and make them more cost-effective on the systemwide level as well as for individual users of the system.
Dates
06/01/2023 to 05/31/2024
Universities
University of New Mexico
Principal Investigator
Nicholas N. Ferenchak
University of New Mexico
ORCID: 0000-0002-3766-9205
Research Project Funding
Federal: $0
Non-Federal: $120,000
Contract Number
69A3552348336
Project Number
23UNM01
Research Priority
Promoting Safety