Recent research shows an important correlation between pedestrian risk and transit service locations. Eighty percent of high pedestrian accident locations are within 100 feet of a transit stop. In the Puget Sound region there are over 120 million passenger boardings a year. Most transit stops are located at a curb, and many are on state routes. While it may not be that this demonstrates a cause and effect relationship bearing on the overall safety of bus transportation, the juxtaposition is noteworthy in the search for solutions to reduce pedestrian risk.
Data reveals that alcohol was involved in approximately 40% of the 291 pedestrian deaths on Washington state highways from 1993 to 2001.
Based on a recent study conducted by the University of Washington, several statistical relationships were determined to be signigicant. Bus stop usage was correlated with pedestrian accidents. When bus stop usage increases by 10 people, it increases the odds of that location becoming a pedestrian accident location by one-and-a-half times.
It is also true that a differential of 10,000 vehicles a day in the adjacent roadway also increases the odds of that location becoming a pedestrian accident location by 1.8 times. For each new lane on a road, the likelihood the location will become a pedestrian accident location is 15.3 times larger. Often multi-lane roads and bus stops are in the same setting.
The research makes it clear that facilities with high numbers of bus boardings or alighting should be designed with attention to the fact that the passengers have just been or are about to be pedestrans with a clear need for being able to safely walk along and across the roadway. WSDOT offices must work together to identify facilities and locations where this issue of intermodal connectivity can be addressed through bus riders through steps that meet the complicated environment of pedestrian, transit and roadway systems.
Source: WSDOT Highways and Local Programs Office; taken from the Bicycle and Pedestrian plan currently under development.
Draft available at: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/bike/Bike_Plan.htm