In November and December, the Roadway Safety Institute held three workshops designed to inform transportation practitioners about innovative treatment options for improving pedestrian safety. The workshops—held in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio—convened nearly 90 attendees from nonprofit organizations, private firms, and state and local agencies.
Each workshop featured a presentation by Institute researcher Ron Van Houten of Western Michigan University (WMU), who provided a thorough overview of cutting-edge pedestrian safety treatments and their effectiveness. Van Houten is a professor in the Department of Psychology at WMU and a behavior analysis expert in the areas of traffic safety, pedestrian safety, intelligent transportation systems, traffic calming, bicycle safety, seat belt use, and reducing impaired driving.
Van Houten discussed both pedestrian-focused and driver-focused countermeasures, with an emphasis on innovative techniques supported by recent research. He also emphasized human factors, noting that changing the safety culture in a community is as important as installing countermeasures.
Following Van Houten’s presentation, workshop attendees participated in group discussions about their communities’ challenges and brainstormed possible solutions. Groups focused on topics such as design, research, public involvement, political will, funding, and jurisdiction.
While some participants’ challenges were specific to their communities, many common themes emerged. For example, participants at all three workshops identified the difficulty associated with pedestrians crossing mid-block rather than at intersections.
These themes have been shared with Institute staff and researchers in an effort to identify future research and outreach projects that could help practitioners meet the challenges they face in their communities.
A summary of the workshops, including the participant discussions at each event, is available on the Roadway Safety Institute website.
