What do you do if you want to enhance pedestrian safety through innovative design concepts?

Traffic calming is often assumed to be physical. Bumps, chicanes, raised crosswalks... Those elements, however, tend to be unpopular with residents and what makes areas truly unsafe related to speed is driver expectations. The design of the roadway, widths curbs, sidewalks, landscaping... all send subconscious messages to drivers about what they should expect and where. The best Traffic calming is invisible. You can create characteristics that clearly communicate the presences of peds/bikes to create expectations, but also you need to consider mental "friction." Not distractions, per se, but elements that make it feel "tight" and force drivers to slow down and pay attention. Narrow lanes. hardscaping at back of curb. Dense shrubs.

Street are safer for pedestrians when you know that any child can walk, run and not pay attention to the surroundings, without quickly being endangered. This means that pedestrians should have priority at every intersection, crossing, and generally everywhere (why should car drivers have more rights than pedestrians?). Vehicle-free streets are usually the best option, city mayors and politicians shouldn't be that shy to implement this kind of measures. I recommend the famous book "Happy City" from C. Montgomery.

In the pursuit of enhancing pedestrian safety through innovative design concepts encompasses a range of measures aimed at reducing vehicle speeds and improving safety for pedestrians. These measures include speed humps, chicanes, raised crosswalks, and narrowing roadways. By strategically implementing traffic calming designs, we create safer environments for pedestrians by encouraging drivers to slow down and remain vigilant. Speed humps and raised crosswalks compel drivers to reduce their speed, providing pedestrians with a safer crossing experience. Chicanes and narrowed roadways introduce visual and physical cues that prompt drivers to proceed with caution, increasing awareness of pedestrian presence.

Designing a street corridor that encourages vehicles to travel at the posted speed can be done through the design itself. Traffic calming can be done in a variety of ways, but without narrowing the vehicular lanes and/or bulb-outs at intersections especially, the results will be subpar. Realistically not all streets can be designed this way due to freight and truck traffic/deliveries. Regardless this should not be an excuse to be slow to improving safety for all users along a corridor.

Implement design elements such as speed bumps, raised crosswalks, chicanes, and roundabouts to slow down vehicle speeds and increase safety for pedestrians.

Visibility is improved when the traffic speed is reduced (max. 30 km/h) - drivers react then better to crossing pedestrians or cyclists - when and many pedestrians are on the streets, thus catching the attention. The traditional zebra crossing is under these two conditions quite powerful and remains a cheap solution to implement.

Frequently the pedestrian crossing and vehicular traffic light change simultaneously to green/walk at the same time. In areas where pedestrian activity is higher, it's recommended to delay the green light a couple of seconds. This increases the driver's visibility of pedestrians crossing the street in the crosswalk as they approach the intersection.

???? In my opinion, innovative barrier systems are crucial for pedestrian safety in urban areas. For instance, in New York, advanced designs like self-closing flood barriers enhance protection against various hazards. I suggest integrating adaptive barriers, reflective materials, and green infrastructure to ensure safety, sustainability, and community well-being.??

The vast majority of pedestrian barriers are there for the benefit of drivers by pushing people to cross off their desire lines because of the motonormative history of traffic engineering and the politics underpinning it. If we are to truly enable walking and wheeling, we should be designing to enable and prioritise people's desire lines. There are some occasions where they service a purpose, but that's in situations where there is a risk of a fall or drop and very few others.

Although pedestrian barriers provide an opportunity to direct pedestrians on safe routes, their presence on a road actually presents some risks. These include obscuring the presence of pedestrians, particularly children, from approaching drivers. In addition, barriers can pose a deadly presence in the event of an errant vehicle leaving the carriageway, particularly motorcyclists. If pedestrians try to climb over these, it can also result in people falling into the carriageway, with possible tragic results. Lastly, barriers can be costly to repair if struck by passing vehicles, so often remain unsightly for extended periods of time. Therefore, where possible, try to use dissuasion features rather than barriers.

When focus is on pedestrian safety while crossing traffic, elevation (thus also traffic calming) and proper LED lighting console over a crossing are/should be base elements. Sensors, induced traffic signals and other gadgets just come on top of that - as stated, "an additional layer".

In a lot of places, Smart Crossings only have an advisory role for drivers, so they don't have to stop to allow pedestrians to cross. To overcome the plethora of safety issues this poses, especially for those with mobility or sensory impairments, having crossings protected by full traffic signals which drivers have to obey is straightforward. Drivers also understand what traffic signals mean, so there is no excuse for not stopping! Signalised pedestrian crossings can also make use of both vehicular and pedestrian detectors to both optimise the efficiency of operation, but also to automatically respond to situations of large groups crossing or users taking longer due to physical constraints etc, to optimise safety.

The city of Warsaw (Poland) implemented detectors at crossings on large streets, so that traffic lights automatically turn to green for pedestrians and cyclists. And there are some "footrests" for cyclists, so that they can wait while sitting on their bikes!

Improve and implement the team's experience response the rules of environment. Use the essay staff for Improving the quality jobs

A city may have the best intention when designing a public plaza in hopes of bringing activity to an area, however it is important to not get lost in the weeds and create places that are uninviting. A plaza located on a corner is a great idea particularly when the designer remembers to visualize the plaza from across the street and simultaneously ensure that existing utility boxes (infrastructure) will not discourage pedestrian activity.

To make any space walkable & accessible it is important to make it as pedestrian friendly. In the days where we are constantly moving towards the urbanisation, urban areas/ centres shall have public spaces which promotes the pedestrian movement and utilizes the under-utilized spaces with promoting local informal market spaces bring an economic resilience and equity as part of urban development.

To make any space walkable & accessible it is important to make it as pedestrian friendly. In the days where we are constantly moving towards the urbanisation, urban areas/ centres shall have public spaces which promotes the pedestrian movement and utilizes the under-utilized spaces with promoting local informal market spaces bring an economic resilience and equity as part of urban development.

One place where I have often found it critical to educate communities on is Roundabout safety and etiquette for bikes and peds. Not every RAB is the same, so whenever a new one goes in you need to tell people where they should expect the peds to be and when they are expected to give way. Likewise, we need to know when the RAB calls for cyclists to enter the street and progress through as a vehicle or if there might be trail crossings. We have taken out newspaper adds with diagrams as well as hosted events at libraries or high-schools to inform the public in an interactive manner.

Place context and utilisation - it is important to consider pedestrian activity in the context of desired functionality of a place e.g a Main Street, a school precinct etc. - deploy the technology (video surveys or similar) to understand the current interaction between pedestrians and the vehicles. - when delivering any infrastructure solution do with holistic approach. If new crossing is being proposed consider the key nodes or section of road to manage the vehicle speed and do not only focus on the immediate locations. - consider using smart tech to further understand the effectiveness of a solution. As a common mistake is to not review what has been implemented.

Traditional road safety outcomes are focused on achieving results by reducing speed, yet casualty crashes continue to remain stubbornly high. Driver sensory overload and distraction remains the frontier yet to be addressed. A drive with clear focus is more likely to perceive a pedestrian safety risk and react to prevent a crash. This can be achieved by reducing signage clutter along strip shopping precincts, improved parking signage to find and understand time limits, restricting video screen display distractions, integrating phone storage and operation into a car design.