About This Guide

This guide is intended to provide transit agency staff with an easy-to-use re­source for improving pedestrian safety. It should prove useful for transit staff who set agency policies, monitor transit performance, determine transit stop locations and schedules, train transit operators, and work with communities on development near transit stations. The guide is also a resource for agency staff who work with other transportation agencies to develop safe access and egress for transit passengers.

Introduction

The primary goal of transit providers is to carry passengers between residences, employment and other destinations in a safe, convenient, efficient and reliable manner.

Chapter 5: Legal Issues

It is important to understand the legal context for pedestrian safety in the areas around transit stops and stations. Federal and state laws, local statutes and case precedent all dictate the level of responsibility assigned to a transit agency to address pedestrian safety issues, even if the transit agencies lack the authority to make changes to the roadway or roadway operations. This emphasizes the need for transit agencies to partner with other organizations and assign responsibility for ensuring pedestrian safety and enacting engineering improvements.

References

¹Project ACTION: Toolkit for the Assessment of Bus Stop Accessibility and Safety. Easter Seals, 2006.

²Pedestrian Safety and Accessibility Audit Tools. Queensland Transport, Queensland, Australia, 2006.

Chapter 4: Actions to Increase the Safety of Pedestrians Accessing Transit

Understanding pedestrian characteristics and facilities (e.g., sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian signals, etc.) is an important step in providing safe access to transit systems. This section introduces basic pedestrian safety concepts to help readers understand issues, solutions, and resources that are presented in other parts of this guide. Concepts addressed in this chapter include:

Chapter 3: Actions to Increase the Safety of Pedestrians Accessing Transit

There are a variety of actions that can be implemented by transit agencies and their partner organizations to improve safety for pedestrians traveling to transit. These actions include engineering (physical infrastructure), education, and enforcement efforts. The most successful strategies often involve a combination of these treatments.

Good pedestrian design should account for the needs of all potential users, including those with physical or mental limitations.

Chapter 2: Approaches to Enhancing Pedestrian Safety and Access

Transit agencies play an important role in improving the safety of pedestrians. Providing safe and comfortable routes to and from transit improves the passenger experience and helps transit agencies maximize ridership and customer satisfaction.

Chapter 1: Tools for Identifying Pedestrian Safety and Access Issues

This chapter provides tools including bus stop audit checklists, pedestrian catchment area facility inventories, pedestrian questionnaires, pedestrian behavior observation surveys, and pedestrian crash analyses to help agencies identify specific pedestrian safety issues that affect their customers.

While the tools in this chapter are presented for use by transit agencies, they can also be beneficial for other transit agency partners, such as:

Pedestrian Safety Guide for Transit Agencies

Notice

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S.

Lesson 10: Off-Road Trails

Objectives:

Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Describe the importance of off-road trails for walking and bicycling.
2. Cite the different types of trails.
3. Outline different issues related to trail design.

Pre-Instruction: