Safe Transportation Research & Education Center

This paper presents the project outcomes and lessons learned from the San Francisco PedSafe, a comprehensive pedestrian safety planning and engineering project funded by the Federal Highway Administration. It assesses the effectiveness of the Phase I pedestrian safety plan targeted to higher-injury areas by evaluating the Phase II implementation of a range of mostly low-to-moderate-cost innovative safety improvements.

A total of 13 countermeasures (comprised of nine general engineering countermeasures and four Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) countermeasures) were implemented by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and evaluated by the University of California- Berkeley, Traffic Safety Center (TSC) in a three-year period (2004-2007). Regarding the effectiveness of the 13 countermeasures, six were considered generally successful; three were considered less successful and four were considered inconclusive. The six most successful countermeasures included: flashing beacons (with automated and push button actuation), in- street pedestrian signs, video detection to adjust signal timing, pedestrian head starts (leading pedestrian intervals), portable changeable message speed limit signs, and “Turning Traffic Must Yield to Pedestrians” signs A summary of countermeasure evaluation result highlights is also reported.

This paper describes the methodology of countermeasure evaluation, including video data, tools used in data analysis, the advantages and limitations of this method, and possible improvements. In addition, general lessons learned of countermeasure implementation, as well as recommendations for further research are also described.