Title
Staff Report for Pedestrian Crossing Improvements
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff regularly reviews and evaluates and prioritizes crosswalk requests. A list of prioritized crosswalks will be reviewed, and a recommended location will be identified for the upcoming CIP Program.
BACKGROUND
Staff receives many requests for new marked crosswalks or enhancements to existing marked crosswalks throughout the year. These requests for more convenient or safer pedestrian accommodations come from a variety of sources including residents, businesses, new development projects, and planning efforts. As these requests for improvements are made, a strategy is used to determine the relative merit of the improvement and to further consider opportunities with other improvements which might be planned. For instance, there may be a road widening project that includes repaving and utility work where it becomes very cost effective to combine pedestrian related infrastructure such as a flashing crosswalk system with the other work already envisioned. To ensure opportunities are realized and pedestrian crossing needs are sufficiently investigated in a consistent and methodical manner, the Engineering & Transportation Department tracks requests received.
Analysis
By following recommendations from a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) report and entitled, "Safety Effects of Marked Versus Unmarked Crosswalks at Uncontrolled Locations," staff has routinely reviewed crosswalk inquiries and made recommendations using the following available options:
* (C): Candidate sites for marked crosswalks.
* (P): Possible increase in pedestrian crash risk may occur if crosswalks
are added without other pedestrian facility enhancements.
* (N): Marked crosswalks alone are insufficient, since pedestrian crash
risk may be increased by providing marked crosswalk alone.
The practice described herein is intended to assist in developing priorities for the alloca...
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