Texas Pedestrian Safety Action Plan

1) Learn about the Texas Pedestrian Safety Action Plan and pedestrian crash risks statewide
2) MPOs can learn how to use it as an input into their MPO Safety Plans.

In recent years, serious injuries and fatalities of pedestrian-involved traffic incidents around the country have been trending in the wrong direction. The increasing trend has caused the Federal Highway Administration to label Texas a “focus state” and provide technical assistance efforts to reduce pedestrian serious injuries and fatalities. The Texas Department of Transportation has responded by developing a statewide Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP) to reduce the number of fatalities on Texas roadways. The Texas PSAP technical methodology uses complimentary safety analyses. A targeted analysis to identify historic locations with a high number of vehicle-pedestrian crashes and a systemic analysis component that targets the prevalence of crashes based on transportation-related attributes. Findings suggest over 80 percent of the pedestrian crashes occur on less than 25 percent of the on-system statewide miles. This degree of overrepresentation of crashes provides an opportunity to prioritize safety investments for the locations that need the most improvements. The Texas PSAP not only provides roadway locations where pedestrian crashes have occurred in the past and where they may be more likely to occur in the future, but also suggests engineering and programmatic countermeasure to mitigate pedestrian crashes.