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City Uses Data to Assist in Community Revitalization Efforts
A suburban city in Texas, a rapidly expanding community dedicated to revitalizing underserved areas, faces a critical challenge with a major state-run arterial road that runs through the heart of the city. This high-traffic corridor, with a history of fatal and severe injury (FSI), crashes, and limited pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure, presents an important opportunity for safety improvements.
To address these concerns and negotiate competing stakeholder priorities, the city engineer sought reliable, objective data to guide investment decisions. By deploying temporary cameras at 28 high-interest locations, the city collected comprehensive multi-modal roadway data, empowering stakeholders with actionable insights to make informed, safety-focused improvements for the community.
Existing Challenges and Infrastructure Gaps
The arterial road is configured with four lanes (2x2) and a center turn lane, accommodating high traffic volume but lacking pedestrian-focused design features.
This arterial road presents an opportunity for significant improvement in pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure, especially given the local community's heavy reliance on walking and biking, with room to enhance safety and accessibility along its 2.25-mile stretch. Currently, marked crossings are available at four signalized intersections, but there is potential to expand these facilities to beter serve the community. Sidewalk connectivity can also be improved, as some sections lack sidewalks. This configuration does not adequately support the needs of vulnerable roadway users (VRUs), forcing them to navigate unsafe conditions. Enhancing the infrastructure would provide a safer, more accommodating environment, reducing risks posed by high-speed traffic, challenging crossings, and prolonged exposure. Prioritizing targeted safety interventions will help align the roadway's design with the community's mobility needs, fostering a more accessible and inclusive space for all users.
Approach and Data Collection Strategy
The project began with identifying 28 key locations along the arterial road where pedestrian and bicyclist activity was most significant, based on input from stakeholders. Temporary cameras were strategically deployed at each location for a seven-day period to capture multi-modal roadway usage. Advanced cloud-based processing was used to extract detailed trajectory data, assuring accurate and comprehensive insights.
Notable Highlights
Crossing Opportunities
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On average, pedestrians waited over 30 seconds for an opportunity to cross the first set of lanes.
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Pedestrians were often stranded in the center turn lane for an additional 30 seconds on average.
Desire Line Heatmaps for Crossing Treatments
To assist in planning treatments at these locations, desire line heatmaps were derived to visualize the current pedestrian crossing patterns. This information shows where treatments, such as protected crossings, could be implemented. For example, shown in the image to the right, the red shaded regions illustrates the VRU crossing patterns.
Safety Benchmark and Focus Areas
The consistent analysis across the corridor helped establish a benchmark for relative levels of vulnerable roadway users (VRU) safety and focus attention on areas with the greatest safety needs.
Metrics Captured
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Vehicle counts and speed estimation, with a focus on identifying harmful speed zones.
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Pedestrian and bicyclist crossings, as well as exposure times in the roadway.
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Traffic gap analysis to evaluate safe crossing opportunities.
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Pedestrian desire lines to determine optimal locations for crossing treatments.
Risk Exposure
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Some locations averaged over 8 minutes of pedestrian exposure per hour in active traffic lanes.
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Pedestrians were exposed to approximately 100 vehicles during these periods.
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Stranded pedestrians were, on average, exposed to 30 vehicles operating at harmful speeds.
Study Conclusion
The challenges faced by the city in addressing safety concerns along a major arterial road highlight the critical need for data-driven solutions in transportation planning. By engaging in this study, the city gathered objective, multi-modal usage data that empowered stakeholders to make informed decisions. This approach provided clarity on where investments would have the greatest impact, enabling the city to prioritize targeted safety improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists. As the city continues to grow and revitalize under served areas, this project serves as a model for how technology and evidence-based strategies can create safer, more connected communities.