This report provided an overview of the multidisciplinary program implemented in St. Petersburg, Florida to improve pedestrian safety. The programme aimed to increase motorists yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks from single digits to 70 percent and reduce pedestrian-motor vehicle conflicts in crosswalks by 50 percent. Another program goal was to increase pedestrians' feelings of comfort and safety while crossing the street. The report documented the steps involved in assessing pedestrian safety in the community, prioritizing and selecting countermeasures to improve pedestrian safety, implementing engineering, education, and enforcement interventions, and evaluating the effectiveness of the program. The results demonstrate that strategies combining engineering, education, and enforcement efforts are effective in increasing motorist awareness of yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks and reducing conflicts between motorists and pedestrians. The results also suggest that multiple engineering interventions at crosswalks are more effective than single interventions at achieving program goals. This research highlights the value of using a multidisciplinary approach to address a community traffic safety issue and can be used as a tool to help communities design an effective program to target traffic safety issues. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting