To choose the site of their demonstration project, the Pittsburgh team looked at the overlap between crashes, communities of concern, and gaps in 311 requests.
The team ultimately selected the intersection of Lincoln and Frankstown Avenues as the main focus for their project. This confusing, star-shaped intersection provides direct access to an elementary school. In just the past 10 years, 19 crashes occurred at this intersection, including several crashes involving people walking. When visiting the site, team members witnessed additional near misses between drivers and people crossing the street. People driving also regularly exceeded the school zone speed limit on both Lincoln and Frankstown Avenues, in some cases driving nearly twice as fast as the posted speed limit.
The Pittsburgh team led a deliberative democracy forum with break-out discussions, an expert panel, and a design exercise to engage the community and guide their demonstration project.
Engaging the community
To make sure the community had a meaningful voice in guiding their demonstration project, and to start a robust dialogue about safer street design more broadly, the Pittsburgh team decided to use an engagement method called “deliberative democracy.” Rather than a standard town-hall meeting where the city educates attendees then attendees share feedback, deliberative democracy is a forum that works toward building consensus among participants. In this sort of forum, people break out into small group discussions, ask questions of an expert panel, and give detailed, specific input that helps guide decision-making. Pittsburgh has previously used this method to involve the public in decision-making surrounding their budget, but until now they had not used it as an engagement tool for standalone transportation projects. They worked with the mayor’s office to run the forum and spread the word through community neighborhood groups and flyers sent home through schools.
In addition, Pittsburgh partnered with the Allegheny County Health Department and PennDOT to engage directly with schoolchildren. The county regularly conducts classroom visits to teach seminars on safety, so the Pittsburgh team decided to use this as an opportunity to learn from kids about how they get to school, where they cross currently, and where they would like to cross if the street were designed differently. They brought maps to classrooms, meeting with approximately 250 children to ask them what they want the surrounding streets to look like. Based on the feedback the team received from schoolchildren and from their deliberative democracy meeting, they realized they needed to expand the bounds of their project to include the surrounding streets as well as the intersection.
At the launch event for their demonstration project, the Pittsburgh team educated drivers, parents, children, and partners about the new safety improvements.
Creating slower, safer crossings
The design of Pittsburgh’s demonstration project closely followed the feedback they received from the community. For example, by meeting with schoolchildren and asking them to draw on maps, they learned that kids have trouble crossing the street not just at the Lincoln and Frankstown intersections, but at many intersections and mid-block places surrounding the school. As a result, the team introduced several new and improved crosswalks nearby, many of which included protected refuge islands halfway across to provide a safe space for people to pause while crossing and to remind drivers to slow down and yield. They also included informational signs at several of the crosswalks to educate people about the new design and why it is important for safety.
In addition, they made more intense improvements at the Lincoln and Frankstown intersection thanks to insights gleaned from their deliberative democracy. During these conversations, the Pittsburgh team learned that one problem at the intersection leading to conflict between people driving and walking was how stressful and difficult it was for drivers to make left-hand turns. Drivers were so concerned about avoiding oncoming traffic, they were not paying close enough attention to people crossing the street. Using this input, the Pittsburgh team devised a solution that made the intersection safer and easier to navigate for everyone. They added a left-turn lane to the intersection and a corresponding left-turn phase to the traffic signal. This way, drivers would not need to worry about conflicts with oncoming traffic when making turns and could pay closer attention to people walking. This also allowed the team to add a pedestrian-only phase to the traffic signal, providing people with extra time to cross while cars are still stopped.
Educational signs reinforced Pittsburgh’s demonstration project and its importance for safety.
The Pittsburgh team celebrated the successful launch of their demonstration project.
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Reminder: Join us on Thursday, August 1 at 2:00 p.m. to learn more about Pittsburgh’s street safety demonstration project and similar safety projects from Huntsville, AL and Durham, NC that were part of this year’s Safe Streets, Smart Cities Academy.
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The Safe Streets, Smart Cities Academy is funded by Road to Zero, a coalition of over 900 organizations committed to reducing traffic fatalities in the United States to zero over the next three decades.