 |
|
 |
|
|
||
|
||||||
|
Free Pedestrian Safety Assessments for California CommunitiesThe primary objectives of a Pedestrian Safety Assessment (PSA) are:
To meet these objectives, Tech Transfer provides free Pedestrian Safety Assessments, in which evaluators will review your city or county's pedestrian safety conditions, programs, and needs, and suggest new strategies to improve pedestrian safety. Any city or county agency in California can initiate a request for a PSA. After a thorough interview of local agency staff, a team of two pedestrian safety experts will visit the city or county for one day to conduct an evaluation using the comprehensive Guide for Conducting Pedestrian Safety Assessments to help the community achieve the objectives listed above. Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. How is the Assessment Conducted?A team of two pedestrian safety experts conduct the assessment and prepare a report. These two safety experts perform field observations, analyze relevant data and information, and hold discussions with the city's key staff and representatives. In addition, the evaluators review the city's current pedestrian safety-related programs, with a view to increasing the overall effectiveness of the programs. After completing the one-day visit, the two evaluators prepare a report for the city summarizing their findings and suggestions. This report presents the findings and suggestions for improvements derived from:
The benchmarking analysis aims to provide the city with information on current best practices and how the city compares. A walking audit is conducted at various locations, as determined in coordination with city staff. The observations made during the walking audit are used to suggest policies and physical improvements that could enhance pedestrian safety and accessibility, and in some instances, economic vitality. Many suggestions in the PSA report may be appropriate for grant applications, including OTS or Safe-Routes-to-School funding. The suggestions for improvement may also be used as the starting point for a Pedestrian Master Plan, a document that would set forth pedestrian and streetscape policies for the city and identify and prioritize capital improvement projects. What Kinds of Safety Issues can the PSA Address?Pedestrian safety issues that PSAs address include the following:
ResourcesFor general information on pedestrian safety issues and suggested improvement measures, refer to: PSA Evaluators for 2011-2012 Funding CycleEach assessment is conducted by a team of two pedestrian safety experts, as assigned by the Tech Transfer Technical Program Manager. Bruce Appleyard, PhD, AICP, is a project manager with expertise in urban design, consensus building, and a comprehensive range of technical transportation and land use redevelopment issues. From neighborhood projects to municipal and regional policies and practices, his experience as a Planning Commissioner, Urban Designer, and Transportation and Land Use Advisor provides him with deep insight into the challenges and opportunities facing the effective integration of transportation, land use and urban design to create joyful and enriching communities that are economically viable while providing a diverse array of transportation options. He served as a Planner and GIS Researcher for the SF Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the University of California, Berkeley, and the cities of Berkeley, CA and Charlottesville, VA. Matt Benjamin is an Associate at Fehr & Peers Transportation Consultants. Over the past 10 years, has had the opportunity to approach non-motorized transportation issues from a variety of perspectives, including work in the public, non-profit and private sectors. After serving as the Bicycle Parking Coordinator for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Matt joined the staff of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition where he served as Planning and Policy Director and led a groundbreaking study of low-income cyclists in Los Angeles County. Since 2007, Matt has worked full-time in the private sector, where he has led a variety of bicycle and pedestrian planning projects in the greater Los Angeles area. Prior to joining Fehr & Peers, Matt served as a Project Manager in several major redevelopment studies in the greater New Orleans area, where he was able to inject serious consideration of transportation affordability (particularly via non-motorized modes) into the standard analyses that drive the development of affordable housing. Matt currently leads the bicycle and pedestrian planning practice for Fehr & Peers in Southern California. Mark Bowman, PE, is a Professional Civil Engineer and Traffic Engineer. He is currently a Principal at Kittelson & Associates and has more than 30 years of public and private sector experience in traffic and transportation planning for local, regional and state transportation agencies in several states. His experience includes traffic operations and environmental impact studies, downtown transportation planning, traffic signal systems, traffic simulation, bicycle and pedestrian studies, and mass transit. He has served as He has served as a Synchro/SimTraffic instructor for Tech Transfer and as a Traffic Engineer for the City of Boulder, CO. Steven Brown, PE, is a Senior Principal at Fehr & Peers Transportation Consultants. He has a Master's Degree in Civil Engineering as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He has more than 20 years of experience with both the public and private sectors. His experience is in the following areas: transportation planning, traffic calming, traffic impact analysis, freeway/interchange studies, environmental impact reports (Transportation), parking facilities, bicycle, transit, and pedestrian studies. He has taught the Traffic Calming Course for Tech Transfer. John Ciccarelli is a transportation planning and design consultant with over 15 years of experience specializing in bicycle and pedestrian modes, with particular expertise in city and campus master plans, corridor and trail studies and plans, and safety analysis. He has developed and taught planning and design workshops for Tech Transfer, UC Davis Extension, Caltrans, LA DOT, LA County Metro, and APBP. John serves on the National (NCUTCD) Bicycle Technical Committee and is a principal author of APBP's Bicycle Parking Guidelines. As Stanford University's first Bicycle Program Manager, he created and implemented a comprehensive facilities program to improve safety and accessibility for Stanford's thousands of student and commuter bicyclists. John is a certified League Cycling Instructor (LCI) who teaches bicycle driver education classes for adults and teens. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering. Brook DuBose is a Transportation Planner with Fehr & Peers Transportation Consultants, specializing in non-motorized transportation facilities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. She has worked on a wide range of projects; from specific intersection improvements to county-wide bicycle and pedestrian master plans. She has also worked on various pedestrian enhancement projects, from Safe-Routes-to-School plans to senior-specific safety recommendations. Prior to Fehr & Peers, she worked for Transportation Alternatives, an advocate for walking, biking and public transit in New York City. Her other areas of expertise include smart growth initiatives, traffic calming design, and public space revitalization. She has a Master of Urban Planning degree. Aaron Elias is an Engineering Associate at Kittelson & Associates. He has experience on various streetscape projects for the City of Oakland, performed modeling work in the central valley region, and assisted with various research tasks for projects such as active traffic and demand management strategies for FHWA. Additionally, Mr. Elias has been the lead software tester for CompleteStreetsLOS which implements the multimodal LOS methodologies of the 2010 Highway Capacity Manual. This role has given him an in-depth knowledge of all the aspects necessary to perform a multimodal, complete streets evaluation of the quality of service for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and motorists. He has applied this knowledge on a number of projects including a road diet and development impact report for the City of Pasadena, CA and level of service monitoring for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Nikki Hervol Nagaya, PE, is a Senior Transportation Engineer with Fehr and Peers. She has been responsible for successful completion of various bicycle and pedestrian projects in her four years with Fehr & Peers, ranging from bicycle and/or pedestrian master plans, pedestrian safety studies, bikeway and crosswalk conceptual design, and Safe-Routes-to-School projects. She is the Deputy Leader of the Fehr & Peers Bicycle and Pedestrian Discipline Group, through which she serves as a resource for information on best practices in bicycle and pedestrian planning and design. Nikki serves on the City of San Jose's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meghan Mitman, AICP, is an Associate with Fehr & Peers and specializes in pedestrian safety assessments, planning, research, and policy. Prior to joining Fehr & Peers Transportation Consultants, she was a researcher and project manager with the UC Berkeley Traffic Safety Center and a transportation engineer at Parsons Brinkerhoff in New Jersey. She has published papers on pedestrian safety in the Transportation Research Record and presented on pedestrian safety and planning topics at conferences across the U.S. Meghan was the primary author of the California Pedestrian Safety Assessment Program's technical guide. The guide and the program have been the recipient of numerous awards including the ITE Transportation Planning Council's best program award in 2009 (an international award). Meghan is a graduate of Princeton University and UC Berkeley. She is a former Eno, Eisenhower, and UCTC fellow. Ian Moore is a Senior Associate at Fehr & Peers. He has experience managing pedestrian and bicycle plans, multi-modal transportation corridor studies, multi-use trail studies, and roadway corridor master plans. His pedestrian and bicycle project experience is diverse including many phases of planning and design: policy development, expenditure plan development and administration, community-wide master planning, funding plans, design guideline preparation, conceptual design development, construction document preparation, design review, and environmental review. Ian’s pedestrian-focused work includes site evaluations and walking audits for a variety of project types including safe routes to school plans and capital improvement studies, major development project sites, corridor plans, and pedestrian crossing improvement studies. Ian is currently working with California clients on pedestrian crossing enhancements, sidewalk and walkway design, as well as crosswalk policy development and complete streets policy emphasizing pedestrian access, mobility and safety. Miguel Nunez is a Transportation Planner with Fehr and Peers and has more than three years of experience in transportation planning. He received his Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2007. He has assisted in a wide variety of projects including traffic impact studies in West Los Angeles, Sun Valley, Burbank, Pasadena, Manhattan Beach, and the Wilmington community. He was also involved in a regional multi-modal mobility study for West Los Angeles and the General Plan Update in the City of Beverly Hills. He has helped to collect and analyze data for traffic impact assessments contained in Environmental Impact Reports on four Hawaiian islands, and has been involved in pedestrian safety assessments in local jurisdictions including Encinitas, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, El Monte, Chula Vista, Lomita, Thousand Oaks, and Ventura. Kamala Parks is a Senior Transportation Planner and Engineer with Kittelson & Associates. Her work includes preparing traffic impact studies, analysis for and writing of master plans and environmental impact reports, and assisting with research reports. Before joining Kittelson & Associates, she worked for the University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) as a researcher and for the Office of Transportation at the City of Berkeley, where she interned for the Traffic Engineering Department and was the interim Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner. Ms. Parks analyzed existing policies as they pertained to pedestrians, played a key role in developing project fact sheets, and authored the implementation and policy elements for Alameda County's Pedestrian Master Plan. She has a MCP/MS from Department of City and Regional Planning, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. Matthew Ridgway, AICP, PTP, is a Principal with Fehr & Peers who has managed more than 100 bicycle and pedestrian master plans and design projects in California and the western US. He is the past Chair of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Bicycle and Pedestrian Council and contributor to many transportation planning publications including the UC Berkeley Fundamentals of Traffic Engineering (Pedestrian Chapter), ITE Transportation Planning Handbook (Bicycle and Pedestrian Chapter), and the ITE Planning Urban Roadway Networks Recommended Practice. He is currently working on a Recommended Practice with Meghan Mitman on Accommodating Bicycles and Pedestrians at Interchanges. He and Meghan were lead authors of A Technical Guide for Conducting Pedestrian Safety Assessments for California Cities. Debbie Yueh, AICP, is a Senior Transportation Planner with Kittelson & Associates, and is a certified planner with experience in traffic operations and transportation planning. She has performed environmental assessments for a variety of residential and commercial developments as well as schools and churches in both urban and rural settings. She also managed a number of specific plan and area studies and assisted in the preparation of the circulation element of a number of general plans. Her professional experience includes pedestrian and bicycle planning, transportation impact studies, and traffic operation/engineering. Ms. Yueh has a Master of Urban Planning degree from San Jose State University and a M.B.A. from Monterey Institute of International Studies in International Management. Feedback from Local Agencies about Pedestrian Safety AssessmentsBelow is a summary of feedback from local agency staff about the assessments: "The evaluators did an exceptional job covering all of the pedestrian policy issues that were of concern to us." "The assessment met and exceeded our expectations and we are particularly happy with the way the assessment identified our city's key strengths, areas of enhancement, and opportunities. The data presented further complements the research and analysis that is currently a part of our Draft General Plan Circulation and Land Use and Urban Design Elements." "I found their recommendations to be innovative and practical at the same time." "The evaluators were enthusiastic, interested, professional, helpful and accurate. Our local pedestrian concerns at various locations were each given a complete review and the resulting recommendations were thoroughly addressed by the team. Job well done!" For more information, refer to Tech Transfer's Award-Winning Pedestrian Safety Audits in Tech Transfer's Fall 2009/Winter 2010 Newsletter. Who can Request a PSA from Tech Transfer?Any agency within a city or community in California may request a Pedestrian Safety Assessment from Tech Transfer. However, the number of assessments we can do each year is limited by funding from the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) ranks California cities in the same population group for the number of pedestrian collisions by average population. This ranking is based on rate of collisions per "1,000 daily-vehicle-miles-of-travel" and per "1,000 average population." Priority is given to applicants with significant pedestrian safety issues based on OTS collision rankings. Communities with the highest collision rates (top ten) for their population group are given priority. Communities with populations over 25,000 that appear in the top ten lists for OTS collision rankings are given the highest priority. Agencies can review their OTS collision ranking online. How to Request a PSATo learn more about Pedestrian Safety Assessments and to request one for your city, e-mail pedsafety@techtransfer.berkeley.edu. A limited number of assessments are available each year, so send in your request early.
|
|||||
|