Bellevue, Washington is acting on the data and giving pedestrians head starts at busy intersections around in the city’s downtown.
Bellevue, Washington is implementing Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPIs) on crosswalks around its downtown, according to an article by Christopher Randels for the Urbanist.
“This change…helps to reduce collisions between pedestrians and drivers by making people walking in the crosswalk more visible to drivers before they turn,” reports Randels. LPIs have already demonstrated significant safety benefits in the city, according to Randels: “Analysis from a 2020 pilot program across 20 intersections Downtown and in Crossroads revealed that LPI helped reduce near-misses between people driving and walking by 42%.”
The city of Seattle has its own data to support the safety benefits of LPIs, according to Randel: “A parallel analysis by Seattle’s Department of Transportation across 300 LPI intersections in that city showed a 48% reduction in turning collisions between drivers and pedestrians.” New York City also has a successful record with LPIs.
The article includes more details about where and why (including low-cost implementation for the latter) is Bellevue is rolling out the pedestrian safety improvement in the source article linked below.
Read the full story: Bellevue Implements Strategies to Protect People Walking and Rolling Downtown
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