Pedestrian Signal Safety - AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

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SITE SELECTION
Pedestrian countdown (PCD) signals are used almost exclusively at signalized intersections
maintained by Salt Lake City. Some city-maintained signal intersections have traditional pedestrian
signals (TPS), but these intersections generally are characterized by low pedestrian volumes. In
the city limits, a number of signalized intersections are maintained by the state of Utah. At the time
the data were collected for this study, some state-maintained signalized intersections with moderate
pedestrian volumes were equipped with TPS.
Therefore, for the study intersections, the PCD intersections were selected from city-maintained
signalized intersections, and the TPS intersections were selected from state-maintained signalized
intersections. The state-maintained intersections were those on state-maintained roadways. As such,
these were likely to be higher-volume, higher-speed roadways and may have differed slightly in
character from the city-maintained signals.
A traffic engineer from Salt Lake City provided a list of approximately 20 city- and state-maintained
intersections that had significant pedestrian activity. The project engineer reviewed these 20
intersections for the following aspects:
• pedestrian volumes, particularly older pedestrian volumes;
• lack of any construction or other temporary impediments (such as street closures) that may
affect pedestrian behavior;
• ability to sufficiently collect data;
• conventional intersection design;
• surrounding land use; and
• comparability in walking environment at intersections.
Based on these field observations, discussions with the engineering staff, and the recommendations
of the AAA representatives in the area, three intersections were selected for the study:
• State Street and 2100 South (traditional);
• State Street and 200 South (countdown); and
• 1300 East and 500 South (countdown).
Initially, data were collected only at these three intersections. The data collection team returned to
Salt Lake City in early May 2005. The engineering staff in Salt Lake City assisted the project team in
the selection of a fourth study intersection. A list of five intersections equipped with TPS was provided
to the research team. These intersections were located in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area,
but not necessarily in the city limits. Based on the criteria specified for study intersections, a fourth
intersection was selected:
• State Street and 3300 South (traditional).