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Peter Eun: "Welcome to the Federal Highway Administration's Innovation Conversation audiocast.
I'm Peter Eun, Transportation Safety Engineer with FHWA.
In this conversation, we'll talk about the Every Day Counts initiative that promotes
safe transportation for every pedestrian or STEP.
Today I have the distinct pleasure of chatting with Mark Cole, Assistant Division Administrator
in the Traffic Engineering Division of the Virginia Department of Transportation
in Richmond, Virginia.
And so Mark, you know, we know nationally that the numbers are going up in the pedestrian
fatalities, but maybe you can talk a little bit about those numbers and some of the things
that you guys are doing with regards to improving it?"
Mark Cole: "Yes. Good morning Peter.
As you mentioned, pedestrian deaths are up nationwide and that is no different
here in Virginia.
Prior to 2016, we were experiencing about 80 to 90 pedestrian deaths every year
on our roadways.
And unfortunately, in 2016 we saw an over 50 percent increase and had over 120 pedestrian
deaths in Virginia.
And what's even more concerning is every year since 2016,
we've maintained that new higher level.
So we've been doing a lot of work here at VDOT to try to understand what's going on
so we can try to help the situation and try to get those pedestrian deaths moving toward
zero and eventually eliminate it here in the state."
Eun: "So that's great, I'm really excited to see that you guys are wanting
to make some improvements in this area.
So how did you guys hear about STEP and why did you guys decide to STEP in?"
Cole: "Well, we heard about STEP through Federal Highways Every Day Counts program.
We get a lot of correspondence from Federal Highway on a daily basis
and are in great communication.
And once we heard that STEP was one of the initiatives in Every Day Counts, we knew that
it was something we wanted to do."
Eun: "Now, you guys decided to jump in really early, didn't you?"
Cole: "We did.
It just so happened that we had begun some in-depth pedestrian work
in our safety group in 2015.
And so we had already had kind of our feet wet, and were starting to make some good progress,
and so the timing of Every Day Counts when STEP came on board couldn't have been better.
So we were really excited to start that up and to get working on an action plan and see
what that did for us."
Eun: "You know, a lot of places, they hear about this initiative and they take some small steps
but you guys really decided to make a long-term plan cause you knew that it wasn't going to
be something done overnight.
Could you tell us a little more about your action plan?"
Cole: "Yes. We actually did a action plan
through the STEP program working with Federal Highway
that we finished back in October, 2018, that really focused on uncontrolled intersections,
but parallel to that effort, we had already begun a statewide initiative to develop our
first Virginia Pedestrian Safety Action Plan that took a very comprehensive look at pedestrian
safety issues in Virginia, and looked for ways where we could improve pedestrian safety
through our day-to-day business.
It took a look at all our VDOT policies and procedures, things that we do on a day-to-day
basis or that we require, to make sure that we had policies that were strong in regards
to pedestrian issues and that ensured that what we create in the transportation environment
is safe for pedestrians.
We also wanted to create a tool kit of safety countermeasures for pedestrians as part of
the action plan.
And then finally, we did a lot of data analysis and research to find the locations on our
public roads where the risk for pedestrian safety issues is much greater.
So we created a map with identification of pedestrian priority corridors so that we can
focus our limited transportation dollars on pedestrian improvements in those locations.
Our hope is that by focusing on the worst locations first, that we can really get a
head start trying to bring down our pedestrian crash numbers."
Eun: "So Mark, Can you tell us maybe at the state level with regards to the
different stakeholders that you guys are bringing to the table and how that's working out?"
Cole: "Yes, well, what I would say about highway safety in general,
and especially pedestrian safety is, thankfully, we're not in this alone.
It takes all of us on board trying to work on the strategies that we have to improve
pedestrian safety to be successful.
So on our stakeholder teams, we've wanted to make sure that we had representatives from
not only VDOT, but from those other safety partners so that we can get a more
complete picture of the pedestrian safety issues that we're trying to help.
So our stakeholder teams have involved representatives from all the major VDOT divisions that include
our location and design division, our planning division, our maintenance division,
some of our field offices, to make sure that we have a complete picture
of what's out on the ground here at VDOT.
But in addition to those VDOT representatives, we also had several locality representatives,
mostly from the transportation planning or engineering office that were involved in our
stakeholder team.
We also had representatives from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, which is a huge
partner for us and they do a lot of work in the education and enforcement arenas.
In addition, fairly a new member of the team over the last year or so that we're real excited
about is our Virginia Department of Health.
Because what we've learned is that Department of Health has done a lot of work with communities
and with the data to really draw that health connection.
And highway safety is definitely a public health issue.
We're excited that we just are completing an update of our Pedestrian Action Plan already.
In part of that update, we incorporated the Virginia Health Opportunity Index,
which is an index that the department of health here produces, that gives an idea for every census
track in the state of your opportunity to live a long, healthy life in Virginia.
And what we found is that over 60 percent of our pedestrian deaths occur in locations
that receive a very low or low health opportunity index score.
So there's a great correlation there between some of the health indicators
and pedestrian safety.
So, we've just scratched the surface on that, but we're excited about
seeing where it goes.
And it's just an example of the wealth and variety of information that can be brought
to the table when you engage people outside of just your little box or your organization."
Eun: "That's great to hear.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the implementation, maybe some of the treatments,
and then maybe also with regards to prioritization of projects as well, different methods?"
Cole: "We have been the busy trying to implement some physical infrastructure projects on the
ground to improve pedestrian safety here in Virginia.
We've really been focusing early on, on crosswalk enhancements, both to make sure that we have
crosswalks where they are needed, but also to make sure they're as visible as possible
and in the places where pedestrians want to cross.
Some of the work that we did, made us aware that in over 70 percent of the cases where
we have a pedestrian death, there was no marked crosswalk available
within half a mile of that location.
So we've really been looking to add crosswalks where they're needed.
And that's been one of our primary initial enhancements.
In addition to that, we've been working to install pedestrian countdown signals at our
traffic signals in pedestrian corridor areas.
And we've also been doing some work to strengthen our road diet policy and guidance to make
sure that we can make those changes as well, when resurfacing happens, and through other
projects, so that we can get the benefits of those improvements."
Eun: "So Mark, really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today, but there are
many states out there that are, you know, just at the beginning stages and they're wanting
to make these improvements.
What advice would you give your peers out there with regards to getting onboard,
STEPing up and making roads safer for pedestrians?"
Cole: "One thing I would say to peers is just to remember that we're all in this together.
The pedestrian safety issues that we've been facing here in Virginia with the increases
is not just a Virginia issue.
As we've talked about, pedestrian crashes and deaths are up across the country.
I would offer to any of those who are listening, if you've heard something about Virginia's
experience today that you're interested in, we're always happy to have a phone conversation
or to help out any way we can, to share those resources.
And the more all of us do that, hopefully over time we'll build a library of best practices
and techniques that we can use to try to make good improvements in the area of
pedestrian safety across the country.
There's a lot to be learned from the data.
And I think as much as we can use that data to understand the issues and implement some
of these ideas that we've talked about today,
we're gonna really start to make a positive difference."
Eun: "Mark, this has been great and thank you for taking the time
to share your experiences with STEP.
We know it's saving lives across Virginia and across the country.
This has been an Innovation Conversation.
For more information, please visit the Federal Highway Administration's STEP website.
Thanks for listening, and goodbye."
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