TECHBRIEF

The Pedestrian & Bi cy cle Safety Research

Program focuses o n identifyi ng problem

areas for pede stria ns and bicycles, deve loping

analysis t o o ls that allo w planners and

engineers to better understand and target these

problem areas, and evaluating counter-measures

to reduce the number o f crashes invo lving

pede stria ns and bicycles. Figure 1. GIS generated safe walking route 

to school.

GIS Tools for

Improving

Pedestrian

And

 Bike Safety

Geog raphic Information System (GIS) software turns

statistical data such as accidents and geog raphic data

such as roads and crash locations into meaningful

information for spatial analys is and ma pping. In this

project, GIS–based analytical techniques have been

applied to a series of pedestrian and bic ycle safety

issues: 

< safe routes for walking to school 

< selection of streets for bicycle routes

< high pedestrian crash zones 

Also, tools were developed to make it easy for non-GIS

specialists to perform similar analysis. The three

safety analysis tools for pedestrian and bicycle

applications will be available on a demonstration CDROM in late summer 2000. The CD-ROM will provide

insight into how GIS can be used to improve

pedestrian and bike safety , demonstrate the safety

analysis tools using real-world data, and contain the

software code that users can adapt to fit their

particular needs. The minimum requirements to run

the safety analysis tools include ArcView 3.0 or higher,

Network Analyst extension, Spatial Analyst extension,

and Windows 95,98, or NT.

Users should be aware that many data items

(sidewalk, curb lane width, crosswalk locations, etc.)

needed for safe route to school a nd bicycle

applications are not in traditi onal roadway inventory

files maintained by state and local transportation

agencies. This data should be collected along with

other roadway inventory information during data base

updates. 
Figure 3. High pedestrian crash zones

generated using GIS.

Figure 2. Color coded map indicating the

compatibility of each street link for bike riding. 

Resear ch, Deve lopment, 

and Technology

Turner-Fairbank Highway

Research Center

6300 Georgetown Pike

McLean, VA 22101-2296

FHWA-RD-00-153

July 2000

Safe Route to School

This tool generates a walking route and associated

directions for the 1) shortest route to school, 2) safest

route based on hazard associated with various road

and traffic elements, or 3) preferred route (based on

preferences selected by the user). The potential users

of this tool are parents, school transportation officials,

planner, engineers, or others responsible for the safety

of school children. The users will be able to choose

routes with stops along the way (e.g. friends house) or

routes that avoid certain locations. The application

currently runs as a stand-alone program in the

Windows operating environment and work has started

on making the application run on the Internet.

Bicycle Compatible Routes

This tool provides two output options. The first

option is simila r to the safe route to sc hool. This

option generates a map and directions for the quickest

or best bike route for an individual trip between user

selected points. The best route is based on the bicycle

compatibility index (BCI) which is a calculation of the

comfort of each street segment based on roadway and

traffic characteristics.(1) The comfort index is based on

ratings by more than 200 bicyclists. The second output

option is a color-coded map based on the bicycle

compatibility index of all streets in a study area. T his

option can assist bicycle coordinators, planne rs, tra ffic

engineers, and others in designating bike routes and

identifying bicycle facilities that may need improvement.

High Pedestrian Crash Zones

This tool uses grid and map algebra to generate a

contour map identifying areas of high crash occurrence, as determined by crash density, and clusters of

crashes involving pedestrians or bicyclists. Summary

statistics of selected zones can be generated and

displayed in table or cha rt format.

Reference

1. D. Harkey et. al., The Bicycle Compatibility

Index: A Level of Service Concept, TechBrief,

Publication No. FHWA–RD–98–095, Federal

Highway Administration, December 1998.

For More Informat ion

The GIS safety analysis tools were developed by the

North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and

Analysis (CGIA) in cooperation with the North

Carolina Department of Transportation and Wake

County Public School System with financial support

from the Federal Highway Administration. The

University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research

Center assisted in the developmen t of the tools and

database. For more information about this effort or to

obtain a copy of the dem onstra tion CD-ROM to be

available in late Summer 2000, contact either : Davey

Warren, F e d e r a l H ig hway Administration ,

202.493.3318, davey.warren@fhwa.dot.gov or Tim

Johnson, Center for Geographic Information & Analysis, 919-733-2090 tim@cgia.state.nc.us