Safety Manager

SUMMARY REPORT

Factors Contributing to Pedestrian and

Bicycle Crashes on Rural Highways

Approximately 25 percent of nationwide pedestrian and bicycle fatal and injury

accidents occur on rural highways. In contrast to urban highways, rural highways

have certain characteristics that can be more hazardous to pedestrians and bicyclists,

such as higher average vehicle speeds and a lack of sidewalk provisions. Limited

research has been conducted on rural highways, where crash types have been

defined with more detailed coding than exists on standard police forms and where

crash data could be linked with roadway characteristics and traffic counts.

The goals of this study were to examine the differences between pedestrian and

bicycle crashes in urban and rural settings in North Carolina and to identify

problem areas (specific crash types and crash locations) on rural highways that

are of high priority for safety treatment and treatment development.

Background

A 1996 study analyzed 5,000 pedestrian and 3,000 bicycle-vehicle crashes

from five States.(1) This study used a crash-typing method developed by

the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to refine and

update crash type distributions. The most common crash types were

midblock dart/dash, other midblock, intersection-related, and vehicle

The Highway Safety Information System

turn/merge. The majority of bicycle-vehicle collisions occurred when the

(HSIS) is a multi-State safety database that

parties were crossing paths, and they were usually due to a failure to yield.

contains crash, roadway inventory, and traffic

The most common crossing-path crash types were drivers failing to

volume data for a select group of States. The

yield, bicyclists failing to yield at an intersection, and bicyclists failing

current participating States California, Illinois,

to yield midblock.

Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio,

and Washington were selected based on A recent review by Campbell, Zegeer, Huang, and Cynecki considered

over 200 studies pertaining to pedestrian safety.(2) They found that

the quality of their data, the range of data available,

and their ability to merge the data from the various while pedestrian crashes predominantly occur in urban areas, ped-

files. The HSIS is used by FHWA staff, contractors, estrian crashes in rural areas more often lead to pedestrian deaths,

university researchers, and others to study current possibly due to higher vehicle speeds. Pedestrian groups that were

highway safety issues, direct research efforts, and overrepresented were young pedestrians, pedestrians who had con-

evaluate the effectiveness of accident countermeasures. sumed alcohol, and older pedestrians. The most common crash types

were dart-outs, intersection dashes, and turning-vehicle collisions.

Other studies of rural pedestrian crashes found that vehicle type,

alcohol involvement, pedestrian age, weather, light conditions,

nonintersection location, road curve and grade, and surrounding

development type were all prominent characteristics in crash

injury and frequency.(3 5)

While the previously mentioned studies examined the general

characteristics of rural crashes, there is a need to investigate

more detailed crash types and characteristics of rural ped-

estrian and bicycle crashes to determine potential treatments.

This study explored these issues and addressed the role of

countermeasures in rural environments.

Research, Development, and Technology

.

Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center

6300 Georgetown Pike McLean,V 22101-2296

A

Data

This study used data from pedestrian and bicyclist crashes in North Carolina and linked

them with roadway data from the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS).(6) A

subset of the North Carolina crash data were linked to urban and medium-to-high

volume rural roadway data in HSIS to provide the dataset used in this study, which

spans from 1997 to 2002. The data comprise 1,849 total bicycle-vehicle crashes

(52 percent rural crashes and 48 percent urban crashes) and 3,598 pedestrian-vehicle

crashes (54 percent rural crashes and 46 percent urban crashes).

General Comparison of Rural and Urban Crashes

The first objective of the study was to compare general descriptive statistics of

rural versus urban crashes. This general comparison is useful for indicating

which factors are common to both localities as well as which factors are over-

represented in a rural environment. The rural to urban crash comparison can

be found in table 1.

The most common crash types for bicyclists differed in rural and urban areas.

The most common rural crashes included bicyclists turning/merging into the

path of the driver and drivers overtaking the bicyclist. The most common

urban crashes included drivers failing to yield, bicyclists failing to yield

midblock, and bicyclists failing to yield at the intersection. One noticeable

difference is that common rural crash types generally occurred at midblock

segments, while urban crash types generally occurred at intersections.

Both rural and urban areas had the same top four most common pedestrian

crash types: (1) pedestrians walking along the roadway, (2) pedestrians

failing to yield, (3) miscellaneous, and (4) pedestrians darting/dashing

midblock. Similar to the comparison of bicycle crash types, the most

common rural pedestrian crash type (pedestrians walking along the

roadway) was more common at midblock segments, whereas the most

common urban crash type (pedestrians failing to yield) was mostly

found at intersections.

Table 1. General comparison of rural and urban crashes.

PERCENT OF CRASHES

CRASH FACTORS CRASH TYPE RURAL URBAN

Pedestrian 18 10

Resulted in fatality

Bicyclist 6 2

Pedestrian 24 19

Pedestrian or bicyclist alcohol involvement

Bicyclist 8 6

Pedestrian 46 20

Vehicle speed 41 60 mi/h

Bicyclist 47 9

Pedestrian 57 11

Road speed limit 50 mi/h or higher

Bicyclist 54 3

Pedestrian 18 39

Intersection-related

Bicyclist 23 48

Pedestrian 71 18

Occurred on road with unpaved shoulders

Bicyclist 80 20

41 54

Pedestrian

Occurred in daylight

Bicyclist 66 73

2

Exploration of Factors in Rural Crashes

The second objective of this study was to identify specific crash types and crash locations on rural highways that are

of high priority for safety treatment and treatment development. This section examines rural crashes according to

road class and crash type to identify problem areas. It also examines prominent characteristics of those problem areas.

Analysis of Rural Crashes by Road Class

Given the availability of roadway inventory data in HSIS, it was possible to examine rural pedestrian and bicycle

crashes with respect to characteristics of the roads where they occurred. The roadway-miles and vehicle-miles in

table 2 and table 3 are a statewide reflection and do not simply represent roads where crashes occurred.

Roads in rural areas were divided into classes according to number of lanes, level of access control, and other

characteristics. It should be noted that 94 percent of North Carolina State-owned roads are rural two-lane roads.

For bicycle crashes, crash frequency and crashes per vehicle-mile indicate that rural two-lane roads had the highest

number of crashes, even after vehicle exposure was accounted for. The crashes per roadway-miles indicate that

rural multilane undivided nonfreeways would be the most cost-effective roadway class to treat on a per-mile basis.

For pedestrian crashes, crash frequency indicates that rural two-lane roads had the highest number of crashes.

Crashes per roadway-mile indicate that rural multilane undivided nonfreeways would be the most cost-effective

roadway class to treat on a per-mile basis. Crashes per vehicle-mile indicate that rural two-lane roads and rural

multilane undivided nonfreeways had the highest number of crashes.

Overall, the rural two-lane roads class had the greatest need for safety improvements due to the large number and

rate of crashes that occurred on these roads. While it is true that it would be costly to treat the extensive mileage

of rural two-lane roads, funds for safety research and treatment development would be better spent if focused

on this roadway class, and the treatments could be targeted to certain locations or segments within this class.

The lack of pedestrian and bicyclist volume data prevents researchers from knowing whether the crashes are

distributed evenly in accordance with where people walk and ride or if they are disproportionately represented on

certain road classes. However, given the available data on crashes and vehicle volumes, the North Carolina data

indicate that treatments for rural pedestrian and bicycle crashes should focus on two-lane roads.

Table 2. Rural bicycle crashes by road class.

CRASHES PER

6-YEAR CRASHES PER 100 MILLION VEHICLE-MI

RURAL ROADWAY CLASS CRASH FREQUENCY 1,000 ROADWAY-MI PER YEAR

Two-lane roads 725 23.9 0.51

Multilane divided 43 52.2 0.17

Multilane undivided 28 76.9 0.28

Freeways 3 3.3 0.01

Table 3. Rural pedestrian crashes by road class.

CRASHES PER

6-YEAR CRASHES PER 100 MILLION VEHICLE-MI

RURAL ROADWAY CLASS CRASH FREQUENCY 1,000 ROADWAY-MI PER YEAR

Two-lane roads 1,331 43.9 0.93

Multilane divided 110 133.5 0.45

Multilane undivided 71 195.1 0.72

Freeways 118 131.1 0.20

3

Analysis of Rural Crashes by Crash Type

One of the most prominent features of the North Carolina pedestrian and bicycle crash

database is the crash type data. Based on police crash report sketches and narratives,

each crash is categorized as a particular crash type, such as drivers overtaking a bicy-

clist or pedestrians walking along the roadway. This study explored crashes accord-

ing to type and road class. Frequently occurring combinations of crash type and road

class were identified as problem areas (e.g., pedestrians walking along the roadway

on rural two-lane roads or drivers overtaking a bicyclist on rural two-lane roads).

These problem areas were then explored to determine recurring crash characteristics.

Pedestrian, bicyclist, driver, environmental, and roadway characteristics of the prob-

lem area were compared to the characteristics of all crash types on that road class

(e.g., all crash types on rural two-lane roads). This comparison indicated which

characteristics were overrepresented in that problem area. Any overrepresentation

of a particular characteristic indicated potential treatment areas. For example, if

characteristics of a problem area indicated that younger pedestrians were more

involved than the general distribution, treatments specific to younger pedestrians

would be more appropriate for improving the problem area.

The characteristics of each problem area were compared to the characteristics

of all crash types on that road class to determine how they differed. This study

examined each of the 11 pedestrian problem areas and 5 bicycle problem

areas. An example problem area (walking along roadway crashes on rural two-

lane roads) has been included to show the results of the examination of the

characteristics of the pedestrian, driver, environment, and location.

Discussion of Countermeasures for Rural Problem Areas

After the problem areas were identified, potential countermeasures were

discussed to reduce those types of crashes. The Federal Highway

Administration (FHWA) has sponsored two projects, PEDSAFE and

Example Examination of Problem Area Characteristics

Crash Type: Pedestrians Comparison of pedestrian walking along the roadway to all

walking along the pedestrian crash types.

roadway.

CRASH TYPE (PERCENT)

Road Class: Rural PEDESTRIANS ALL PEDESTRIAN

WALKING ALONG CRASH TYPES

two-lane roads.

THE ROADWAY ON ON RURAL

RURAL TWO-LANE TWO-LANE

Number of Crashes:

CRASH CHARACTERISTICS ROADS ROADS

369 (27 percent of all

Pedestrians 25 44 years old 45 34

rural two-lane road

crashes). Pedestrian alcohol involvement 35 24

Estimated vehicle speeds of

39 31

Crash Type Definition: 45 55 mi/h

The pedestrian was Dark unlighted roadways 76 50

walking or running Road Speed limits of 50 mi/h or

68 60

along the roadway and higher

was struck from the Undeveloped area 64 54

front or from Unpaved shoulders 92 86

behind by a vehicle.

4

BIKESAFE, to provide comprehensive information on pedestrian and bicyclist safety,

specifically focusing on crash types and countermeasures.(7,8) This current study

examined crash types from pedestrian and bicyclist problem areas, considered the counter-

measures that PEDSAFE or BIKESAFE suggests for that crash type, and discussed

the suitability of the countermeasure with respect to the rural setting. Through careful

consideration and discussion with a limited group of pedestrian and bicycle experts

who were involved in the development of PEDSAFE and BIKESAFE, the suitability

of the countermeasure for rural settings was given a consensus-based rating for

two measures the potential safety effectiveness of the countermeasure and the

feasibility of its implementation in rural areas.

Summary of Countermeasure Discussion

The countermeasures that rated high for potential safety effectiveness and

feasibility in rural areas for each crash type are listed below. Pedestrian and

bicycle activity can be relatively low on some rural roads. Thus, certain coun-

termeasures (indicated in the following list with the word targeted ) may

only be suitable for rural areas where there are higher levels of pedestrian and

bicycle activity. Note that a full discussion of possible treatments, including those

not considered feasible, is in the final report (Transportation Research Board

Annual Meeting 2007 Paper #07-2457).

Rural pedestrian crash types and their solutions include the following:

Pedestrians walking along the roadway.

Add sidewalks (targeted).

Add paved shoulders.

Add roadway lighting (targeted).

Pedestrians failing to yield midblock.

Educate pedestrians.

Pedestrians darting/dashing midblock.

Improve signing (targeted).

Educate pedestrians.

Utilize traffic-calming measures (targeted).

Disabled vehicle-related.

Educate drivers.

Pedestrians failing to yield at the intersection.

Educate pedestrians.

Install pedestrian signal (targeted).

Improve roadway lighting (targeted).

Pedestrians crossing the expressway.

Improve roadway lighting (targeted).

Install fence or barrier (targeted).

Rural bicycle crash types and their solutions include the follow-

ing:

Bicyclists turning/merging into the path of the driver

midblock.

5

Provide marked pavement space for bicyclists (locations with suitable pavement

REFERENCES

width).

Add paved shoulder.

1. Hunter, W., Stutts, J., Pein, W., and

Cox, C. (1996). Pedestrian and

Drivers overtaking midblock. Bicycle Crash Types of the Early

1990s, Report No. FHWA-RD 95-

Provide marked pavement space for bicyclists (locations with suitable pave- 163, University of North Carolina

ment width). Highway Safety Research Center,

Federal Highway Administration,

Improve roadway lighting (targeted).

Washington, DC.

2. Campbell, B.J., Zegeer, C., Huang, H.,

Bicyclists failing to yield midblock. and Cynecki, M. (2004). A Review

of Pedestrian Safety Research in the

Reduce lane width to minimize crossing distance and slow vehicles United States and Abroad, Report No.

(targeted). FHWA-RD-03-042, University of North

Carolina Highway Safety Research

Bicyclists failing to yield at the intersection. Center, Federal Highway Admin-

istration, Washington, DC.

Improve sight distance.

3. Ivan, J.N., G rder, P.E., and Zajac, S.S.

Improve school zones. (2001). Finding Strategies to Improve

Pedestrian Safety in Rural Areas, Storrs CT:

University of Connecticut, Connecticut

Conclusions Transportation Institute. Obtained from:

http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/11000/11500/11542/

UCNR.pdf. Site last accessed June 4, 2010.

4. Hall, J.W., Brogan, J.D., and Kondreddi, M.

The goal of this study was to gain additional knowledge on rural pedestrian (2004). Pedestrian Safety on Rural High-

and bicycle crashes. A general comparison of rural and urban crashes in ways, Report No. FHWA-SA-04-008, Federal

Highway Administration, Washington, DC.

North Carolina found that rural crashes were typified by higher fatality rates,

Obtained from: http://www.walkinginfo.org/

higher vehicle speeds, less roadway lighting, unpaved shoulders, and more pdf/FHWA/Rural_Pedestrian_Safety.pdf. Site

last accessed January 7, 2005.

nonintersection locations than urban crashes.

5. Ossenbruggen P.J., Pendharkar, J., and Ivan, J.

(2001). Roadway Safety in Rural and Small

An examination of rural crashes by road class showed that rural two-lane Urbanized Areas, Accident Analysis and Preven-

roads had the greatest needs for safety improvements due to their high raw tion, 33(4), 485 498.

6. Federal Highway Administration. (2003). Highway

crash frequencies and crash rates per vehicle-mile.

Safety Information System (HSIS), An Analysis Tool

for Making Informed Safety Decisions, Department

Specific problem areas were identified and described in terms of char- of Transportation, Washington, DC.

7. Harkey, D.L. and Zegeer, C.V. (2004). PEDSAFE:

acteristics of the crash participants and crash location. The study identified

Pedestrian Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection

11 pedestrian problem areas, such as walking along roadway crashes on System, Report No. FHWA-SA-04-003, Office of Safety,

rural two-lane roads, and 5 bicycle problem areas, such as bicyclists turning/ Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC.

Obtained from: http://www.walkinginfo.org/pedsafe.

merging into the path of drivers midblock on rural two-lane roads. Site last accessed June 4, 2010.

8. Hunter, W.H., Thomas, L., and Stutts, J.C. (2005).

Potential countermeasures for these problem areas were discussed to BIKESAFE: Bicycle Countermeasure Selection System,

Report No. FHWA-SA-05-006, Office of Safety, Federal

determine their potential safety effectiveness and feasibility for rural Highway Administration, Washington, DC. Obtained

areas. Potential pedestrian crash countermeasures for rural areas from: http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/bikesafe. Site last

accessed June 4, 2010.

included improving roadway lighting, educating pedestrians and

drivers, and adding sidewalks and paved shoulders. Potential bicycle

F OR MORE INFORMATION

crash countermeasures for rural areas included providing marked

pavement space for bicyclists, adding paved shoulders, and improving

Additional information can be found in the full report that

roadway lighting. was presented on this study. It can be obtained as follows:

Carter, D. and Council, F. (2007). Factors Contributing to

Pedestrian and Bicycle Crashes on Rural Highways, Transportation

Acknowledgements Research Board 86th Annual Meeting Paper #07-2457, Trans-

portation Research Board, Washington, DC. Obtained from:

http://gulliver.trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=7286.

This study was sponsored by the FHWA under HSIS project

The full report can also be found at www.hsisinfo.org.

TFH61-00-C-00034. The authors appreciate the support of HSIS

For more information about HSIS, contact Carol Tan, HSIS

Manager Carol Tan, Office of Safety Research and Development program manager, HRDS, 202-***-****, abqmc5@r.postjobfree.com.

and the Office of Safety, in defining the scope of the study and

for reviewing preliminary versions. They also express their

Visit us on the Web

appreciation to Charlie Zegeer and Bill Hunter of the University

at www.tfhrc.gov

of North Carolina Highway Research Safety Center for their

input on pedestrian and bicycle countermeasures.

6 FHWA-HRT-10-052

HRDS-06/06-10(1M)E

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