Regional Pedestrian Safety Action Plan

Summary

Kaskaskia Engineering Group, LLC (KEG), in coordination with Toole Design, developed the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP) for the Metropolitan Council to support their goal to reduce the number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured in the region. The study uses a safe systems approach. Safe systems put people at the center of roadway design by fully integrating the needs of all users of the transportation system. This approach recognizes that people make mistakes, human bodies are vulnerable, deaths or serious injuries are not acceptable, redundant safety measures create layers of safety, responsibility is shared, and infrastructure is key

Project

KEG conducted the retrospective pedestrian crash and equity analysis to examine patterns of pedestrian crashes and identify underlying correlations between pedestrian crashes and potential risk factors. KEG performed a location-based analysis to identify the general locations of pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries with respect to geographic context, and a crash type analysis which identified systemic risk factors with respect to roadway and traffic characteristics, land use, modes of transportation, and other geographic features.

KEG also conducted an equity analysis of pedestrian crashes and severe outcomes with respect to environmental justice demographic data provided by the Council. The equity analysis used Census tract data based on the location of the crash to identify where crashes are occurring with respect to socioeconomic and other population data. Like trends nationwide, an overrepresentation of crashes with respect to race and income were identified in the equity analysis. KEG developed a trend summary memo from the crash analysis and supporting graphics.