A Methodology to Measure Pedestrian Crash Rates against Statewide Averages for Roadways and Intersections in Central Florida

To date there are no clear or uniform standards for a method to measure pedestrian crash rates and compare it against a statewide average. In this paper, a novel methodology to measure pedestrian crash rates along roadways and intersections is presented. The main objective is to identify critical pedestrian crash locations that are operating above its corresponding statewide average. It was crucial to address the pedestrian-vehicular conflict as the State of Florida currently tops the list in the "Dangerous by Design" report as having the highest four pedestrian incident locations in the Country. The main challenge was to identify a practical and accurate exposure measure. In most cases, the exposure measure is either a surrogate or impractical. The proposed approach focuses on the potential conflict between pedestrians and motor vehicles expressed in the amount of walking while at risk of being involved in a vehicle crash. The main parameters used in calculating pedestrian crash rates along roadways and intersections included roadway, pedestrian volume and crash data. The pilot studies conducted for the roadways and intersections revealed several critical safety locations within District 5 when compared to the developed statewide average rates which required further investigation to identify main causes and emphasize mitigation improvements. It is recommended that an annual statewide pedestrian count program be initiated for the intersections as well as roadways which would increase the sample size and help in validating the assumptions provided in this study.