SafeTREC and Chen Ryan Associates(link is external) received an excellence in safety research award at the Active Living Research 2015 Conference(link is external) in San Diego from Active Living Research(link is external), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation(link is external), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control(link is external).
The Excellence in Safety Research for Active Living Poster Award was presented to SafeTREC and Chen Ryan for outstanding research on pedestrian risk modeling to inform an update to the City of San Diego's Pedestrian Crossing Treatment Policies.
In a study funded by the City of San Diego, SafeTREC and Chen Ryan Associates examined pedestrian collisions across the City of San Diego, developed a pedestrian risk model, and used the analysis results to support a comprehensive update to the City’s policy on pedestrian crossing treatments at controlled, uncontrolled, and mid-block crossings.
This study provides a unique example of the application of research to inform the update of pedestrian-related policies for one local government. The City of San Diego is building strong justification for traffic calming near intersections, or other treatments that serve to reduce volumes and speeds where high rates of conflicts with pedestrians may occur. The analysis results also indicate that transit riders are especially vulnerable to risk of getting hit while walking to a bus stop, and that higher levels of treatments are warranted in these locations to protect these roadway users.
City staff and researchers are continuing to review the analysis results to inform a meaningful update to their pedestrian crossing treatment policies. Once the updated policies are drafted, they will be presented to City Council for adoption.
The research was conducted by Chen Ryan Associates and UC Berkeley SafeTREC. Researchers were Sherry Ryan, Offer Grembek, Yuan Yuan Zhang, Aditya Medury, Sasha Jovanovic, and Andrew Prescott.