Increasing Safety Through Crosswalk Installation Guidelines

By Kailyn Haskovec, Process Improvement & Change Management Intern

March 19. 2020

At the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), we value safety and customer service. Andi Staley, a Traffic Operations Engineer in Region 3, and her team worked to increase safety and work towards CDOT’s safety goal, Moving Colorado Towards Zero Deaths. This aggressive goal of zero deaths is for every individual, family, and community using Colorado’s transportation network. To help meet this goal, and with a process improvement mindset, the team helped create CDOT’s first crosswalk installation guidelines. 

Background/the Problem

Staff at Region 3 were constantly getting calls from the public and local agencies requesting crosswalk installation in their areas. The staff however, lacked a resource to help with the decision making process of where crosswalks are warranted and under which circumstances installing a crosswalk would be appropriate. This caused inconsistent responses and lacked the validity that CDOT required to truly live our value of excellence. Staff often referred to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), but this document did not fully fit the department’s needs nor answer the public's questions.



Logo for CDOT's Moving Towards Zero Deaths initiative

The amount of pedestrian deaths is on the rise, and with safety being one of CDOTs values, we want to provide the public with the most useful information. According to CDOT’s Colorado Strategic Highway Safety Plan, despite a three percent reduction in 2018, traffic fatalities are up 40 percent since 2010 (from 450 in 2010 to 628 in 2018). Additionally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states that nationally, a pedestrian is killed every two hours and injured every eight minutes on average. 

Crosswalks can aid in the safety of pedestrians, however they are not the only method for reducing collisions. For example, raised medians, Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons, curb extensions, and crossing guards are alternatives to marked crosswalk installation. The goal of the guide is to help provide insight on which method to choose and why. Andi describes the need for the guide, stating, “We have a lot of documents that tell us how to design crosswalks and the specific stuff of what they should look like. But we didn't really have anything that got to the bigger question of where they should be placed and where they shouldn't be placed and what we should consider when installing them.” 

Pedestrians or drivers? Who's to blame?

According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), driver error accounts for only 35% of all pedestrian crashes. Speed plays a large factor in safety between pedestrians and drivers. The field of vision is limited at higher speeds, and the fatality rate also highly increases as vehicle speed increases. The design and installation of crosswalks greatly contributes to safety.

However, crosswalks can also produce a false sense of security and lead the pedestrian to exhibit riskier behavior. According to the FHWA, pedestrians are responsible for 43% of pedestrian crashes. This has increased significantly over the years with the upsurge of smartphone usage of both drivers and pedestrians. 

Andi describes this safety paradox further, explaining, “We're starting to feel a lot more cautious about where we've placed marked crosswalks. There are some studies that support the idea that in a marked crosswalk, the pedestrian might not be as cautious as they would be normally when crossing the street. They may have this added sense of security just because of the marked crosswalk and might not take as much due care when crossing. So, while a marked crosswalk adds awareness for the driver for a pedestrian crossing area, it could actually have a detriment to safety overall because it lessens the defensiveness of the pedestrian.” 

Solution 

Andi's idea was to develop guidelines for crosswalk installations to address this problem, since statewide guidance does not exist. The team in Region 3 researched other guidelines, and found some assistance when referring to the City of Boulder’s Pedestrian Crossing Treatment Installation Guidelines. However, the traffic conditions in Boulder are very different from locations in western Colorado, and it was not consistently in-line with CDOT priorities and methodologies. Therefore, they decided to hire a local Colorado engineering firm, Bechtolt Engineering, to compile all available resources regarding crosswalk installation to develop CDOT’s own list of criteria. The consultants were able to address the problem objectively and provide the extra capacity that Region 3 was lacking to address the issue.

an example of the process map or decision tree used in the guidelines to determine crosswalk installation

An example of the process map or decision tree used in the guidelines to determine crosswalk installation 

Bechtolt took an inventory of all resources currently available and addressed all of the federal guidelines and recommendations. The guidelines include a matrix that addresses factors such as the speed and the sight distance available for the driver, the number of pedestrians crossing and other types of specific and objective criteria. This is then used to help make decisions about installation. 

Overall, these guidelines help engineers and local agencies think critically about crosswalks. “[the guidelines] get people thinking about the fact that it's not just putting a crosswalk out there and that other things that need to be considered such as the speed of the vehicle, the ability for the driver to see the pedestrian and the distance the pedestrian needs to cross, and then also recommend some ways that those can be remediated. Maybe it’s not the ideal location for crosswalks, but by putting in a center island median, or by putting in some additional warning signs and additional markings, you could get it to a point where it could be a safe crossing,” Andi explained. 

Finished Products

Now, when staff at Region 3 receive a call from a local municipality or a concerned citizen, they can reference the crosswalk installation guidelines that includes detailed information about how CDOT makes its decisions. They’ve also created a form for local agencies to fill out which provides background information for the request that can be used for the decision making criteria. So far, three documents have been produced:

An excerpt from the brochure for crosswalk safety designed for the public
An excerpt from the brochure for crosswalk safety designed for the public

An excerpt from the brochure for crosswalk safety designed for the public 

The final document has been completed and is in use in Region 3. CDOT is looking to adapt these guidelines as a statewide document in the future. 

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