Development of Methods to Measure and Monitor Pedestrian Exposure for Planning, Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Transportation Infrastructure.

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Walking requires suitable infrastructure that meets the needs of users. To properly accommodate pedestrians in an urban (or rural) area, it is essential to first understand the demand on the system (i.e., pedestrian exposure in terms of volumes by time of day, day of week and season, for different types of land use) by different types of users. Typical applications of pedestrian exposure data are:1. To guide the design of sidewalks, crosswalks, and other pedestrian facilities.2. To evaluate the effectiveness of pedestrian-related infrastructure.3. To conduct safety analysis by identifying areas of high risk based on collision rates.4. To aid in prioritization of pedestrian infrastructure improvements.5. To develop models that predict pedestrian traffic volumes after a land development or other implemented changes within a transportation system. 6. To objectively address the priority of pedestrian issues in the planning process.The lack of pedestrian traffic data has been identified, nationally and internationally, as one of the most significant barriers to the proper planning, designing, operation, and maintenance of pedestrian-related infrastructure. In fact, there is currently no systematic method to estimate pedestrian exposure for transportation engineering applications, and as a result, decisions involving pedestrian-related infrastructure are made without the required knowledge about the nature of the demand for pedestrian accommodation. Although transportation engineering professionals have begun to develop different pedestrian monitoring methods, they recognize that more research is required to find a systematic way of estimating pedestrian traffic exposure. For example, there is a great need to develop pedestrian traffic patterns for all types of land uses with more robust statistical methods, and to investigate the temporal characteristics of pedestrian traffic in urban areas. The purpose of the proposed research is to design and validate methods that can be used by transportation engineering researchers and practitioners to systematically estimate pedestrian traffic exposure for infrastructure planning, design, operations and maintenance. The resulting methods will contribute to the development of pedestrian traffic monitoring systems which: (1) respond to the information needs of engineering researchers and practitioners; (2) maintain truth in the data used for analysis; (3) promote consistent practice throughout North America; (4) maintain the integrity of the base data used for analysis; and (5) support future flexibility. These are the principles that drive traffic monitoring and which should also become part of a pedestrian traffic monitoring program.This research will assist with the safe and equitable accommodation of pedestrians in urban road engineering infrastructure, helping to increase active living, through walking.