The objectives of this project are to develop a systemic safety planning tool for screening the road networks for high-risk locations of pedestrian crashes and to suggest countermeasures to improve pedestrian safety in small urban/rural areas. Pedestrian and bicycle crashes are rare and their spatial patterns are more sporadic than those of vehicular crashes.  Relying solely on crash counts without accounting for the underlying risk factors provides limited information about where safety measures are needed and which measures would likely best improve safety.

This project will reveal the underlying risk factors for pedestrian crashes in small urban and rural settings, and by combining crash history, identify and rank hazardous sites.  The project will also conduct an extensive literature review of the crash modification factor (CMF) databases.  Results will strengthen the synergies to improve pedestrian safety and complement site-based investigation by unveiling system-wide, at-risk locations and suggest countermeasures that will influence a  greater number of locations than what is permitted through conventional site-based analysis.