TSC Newsletter:Pedestrian study of Emeryville, CA

In August 2005, the UC Berkeley Traffic Safety Center completed a year-long study of pedestrian and bicycle activity at four key intersections in Emeryville, which is home to one of the most complex transportation hubs in the Bay Area, despite its small size and small resident population.

The City of Emeryville contracted with the center in August 2004 as part of an overall plan to foster additional pedestrian and bicycle activity and address the accompanying safety issues. Given the fact that much of Emeryville is what is termed an "auto-dominant" environment, a key goal of the study was to facilitate city leaders’ understanding of what factors will lead people to choose walking over other modes when they are in Emeryville, which is transitioning to increased amounts of housing and increased foot and bicycle traffic. (In the interest of simplicity, pedestrians and bicyclists are considered as one group for this article, since the two tend to respond to similar stimuli in terms of calmer traffic and settings that are friendlier to non-motorized travel.)

Emeryville offers some unique opportunities because of its size, a mere 1.2 square miles, location, and the surges in traffic volume and population due to influxes of workers and shoppers in its highly concentrated office, industry, and retail core. Located at the base of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, where several regional freeways and highways intersect, Emeryville is home to an Amtrak station that serves commuter as well as inter-city trains and is also on a major truck and rail freight route, serving local industries and through-traffic from the nearby Port of Oakland. During the day, the city’s population nearly triples from its 7,000 residents to more than 20,000.

In the interest of improving pedestrian and bicycle safety proactively, before the planned residential expansion occurred, city officials asked the Traffic Safety Center to analyze collision data, compile traffic counts, hold community forums, conduct pedestrian and bike surveys and field observations and field inspections in order to asses safety issues and make recommendations. Additionally, TSC staff hoped to suggest steps to increase ease of use for pedestrians and bicyclists while still maintaining efficient traffic circulation for the large volume of motorized traffic that the city's business and retail core generate and depend upon.

Researchers David Ragland, Emily S. Johnson, Jill Cooper, and Terri O’Connor began their work with collection and analysis of police collision reports, which contained information on crash locations and causes, through 2003 at the four key intersections of study. They coded the data so that it could be overlaid on a map. The city had 15 bike or pedestrian-related collisions amongst the four intersections over a period of five years from 1998 to 2002.

“This number is low compared to urban intersections in Oakland or San Francisco primarily because of the relatively low pedestrian and bicycle volume in the Emeryville intersections. With expected increases in both, the number of pedestrian and bicycle collisions in Emeryville would be expected to increase without the proactive steps the city is taking,” the researchers reported.

Researchers also analyzed Emeryville traffic count data through 2002. They also surveyed 155 people at different intersections, in addition to directly observing vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists at the four intersections.

Traffic counts revealed high numbers of cars (averaging up to 3,229 an hour) while surveys assessing public perception of safety revealed that 41 percent of respondents had had a “near miss” with a vehicle at one of the intersections. Field observations of dangerous situations included many right-of-way violations, high speeds, too-short walk times and a general bias in favor of smooth movement of motorized traffic, while field inspections of intersection infrastructure, signal configurations, signage, pavement markings, adherence to ADA requirements, and other features found many deficiencies, the most prominent of which was the need to boost motorists' awareness–through signage or signals, or both pedestrians and bicycles in the vicinity of the intersections.

Researchers noted that almost all roads were bordered by sidewalks, but they were often very narrow and left users feeling exposed to fast-moving vehicle traffic. And while many intersections featured large, well-marked crosswalks with the latest countdown technology for pedestrian walk signals, there was an abundance of “no pedestrian” segments, and crossing periods were often short.

The center submitted its findings to the city for review in May 2005, including recommendations such as increased signage, distinctive crosswalk treatments, appropriate lighting, and other enhancements. Additionally, engineering changes could be made to reduce the dangers of frequent right-hand turning and double right-hand turning lanes, in additions to vehicle speeds, poor connectivity for non-auto travel, and a shortage of way-finding signage. Following up on some of the center's recommendations, the city contracted with an engineering company to determine the feasibility of implementing changes to the physical structure of a key intersection.

“They did a great job,” said TSC researcher Jill Cooper. “They really thought about pedestrian and bike safety in addition to addressing concerns of auto users.”

Emeryville officials responded to the preliminary report by expressing support for even stronger pro-pedestrian mitigations like restricted turn-on-red lanes. Other mitigations include improving crosswalk engineering, signage and enforcement. Center researchers have prepared a final report, the findings of which were represented at the Walk and Roll Ventura, CA, pedestrian safety event this fall. The City of Emeryville intends to make future improvement based on the center’s findings.