List of Appendices
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Capitol Region Council of Governments Regional Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan The CRCOG Commitment to a Walkable Bikeable Region LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX A: CRCOG Policy Statement on Integrating Walking and Bicycling into Transportation Infrastructure, June 2001 APPENDIX B Pedestrian Safety Study June 2004 APPENDIX C Active Transportation InitiativeSurvey Results APPENDIX D Detailed Estimation of Mode Shift APPENDIX E CRCOG On-Road Bicycle Network, Adopted April 2008 APPENDIX F Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan: Summary of Public Comment April 2008 APPENDIX A CRCOG Policy Statement on Integrating Walking and Bicycling into Transportation Infrastructure Accommodating Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel: A CRCOG Policy Statement on Integrating Bicycling and Walking into Transportation Infrastructure This CRCOG Policy Statement is intended to be used to set a target for the future and not to impose strict and rigid guidelines for immediate implementation. (The CRCOG Policy Statement is modeled on the USDOT Policy Statement on Integrating Bicycling and Walking in the Transportation Infrastructure.) Our future targets for integrating bicycling and walking into the transportation infrastructure are as follows: 1. Bike and Pedestrian ways shall be established in new construction and reconstruction projects in all urbanized areas unless one or more of these three conditions is met: a. Bikes and pedestrians are prohibited by law from using the roadway. In this case, greater effort may be put into looking elsewhere within the right of way or within the transportation corridor. b. Where cost is excessively disproportionate. c. Where scarcity of population or other factors (like topography) indicate absence of need. NOTE: With experience over time CRCOG will define the exceptional circumstances in which facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians will not be required in all transportation projects. These locally defined exceptional circumstances may differ from the above listing. 2. In rural areas, paved shoulders should be included in all new construction or reconstruction on roadways used by greater than 1000 vehicles per day. 3. Sidewalks, shared use paths, street crossings, pedestrian signals, signs, street furniture, transit stops and facilities and connecting pathways shall be designed, constructed, operated and maintained so that all pedestrians (including those with disabilities) can travel safely and independently. 4. Design and development of transportation infrastructure shall improve conditions for bicycling and walking through the following: a. Planning projects for the long term (eg, if a bridge with a 50 year life is being built and it is probable that at sometime in that lifetime bicycle and pedestrian facilities will be available at either end of the bridge, sufficient width for safe bicycle and pedestrian use should be built today.) b. Addressing the need for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross corridors as well as travel along them c. Having exceptions approved at a senior level d. Designing to best currently available standards and guidelines. (The USDOT Statement suggests the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities, the AASHTO A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets and the ITE Recommended Practice Design and Safety of Pedestrian Facilities.) CRCOG Approach to Implementing the Target Policy 1. Follow an engineering judgement approach whereby engineers and planners are encouraged to consider a full range of treatments to achieve the performance goal of providing safe, convenient, and comfortable travel for bicyclists and pedestrians. (For example, if it would be inappropriate to add width to an existing roadway to widen a sidewalk or provide a bike lane, traffic calming measures can be employed to reduce motor vehicle speeds to levels more compatible with bicycling and walking.) 2. Take these specific actions: a. Adopt the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities as CRCOG‟s recommended design guidelines for bicycle facilities, which are to be consulted by the Adopted June 25, 2001 CRCOG Bicycle and Pedestrian Policy Page 3 respective project engineer during the design of any roadway and bicycle facility project. Provide a copy of this document to every CRCOG town engineer. b. Adopt the ITE Design and Safety of Pedestrian Facilities, A Recommended Practice as CRCOG‟s recommended design guidelines for pedestrian facilities, which are to be consulted by the respective project engineer during the design of any roadway project. Provide a copy of this document to every CRCOG town engineer. c. For any transportation project subject to CRCOG funding approval, require the project engineer to give consideration to bicycle and pedestrian accommodations in the design phase. This is in keeping with Section 13a-57b of the CT General Statutes that requires the Commissioner of Transportation to „whenever possible, encourage the inclusion of areas for bicycles and pedestrians when (1) creating the layout of a state highway, in accordance with section 13a-37, or (2) relocating a state highway, in accordance with section 13a-56.‟ d. Disseminate bicycle and pedestrian facilities design information to town engineers and planners as it is available. New information regarding bicycle and pedestrian facility design is being produced at both the federal and state level, CRCOG staff can see that all the towns are aware of the new information, as it is available. Also, seminars and workshops on bicycle and pedestrian safety may be of interest to our towns. This approach will enable us to build some experience with defining “exceptional circumstances” and will enable engineers and planners to begin to consider bicycle and pedestrian needs in a non-threatening way. We would expect that after following this procedure, the designers will begin to discover that accommodating bicyclists and pedestrians is not cost prohibitive, does not require large amounts of rights of way, and that full adoption of the US DOT Policy Statement is a good idea. Adopted June 25, 2001 APPENDIX B Pedestrian Safety Study June 2004 CRCOG Pedestrian Safety Study page 1/18 June 2004 PEDESTRIAN SAFETY STUDY Initial Findings and Recommendations This document provides a summary of the statistical analysis of pedestrian accidents that has been conducted by CRCOG staff. We have reviewed pedestrian accidents occurring in the three year period 1999-2001 and have focused a more detailed analysis on the pedestrian accidents occurring in East Hartford, Hartford, Manchester, and West Hartford, the municipalities in the Region with the highest rate of pedestrian accidents per thousand population. The following summarizes regional and town findings. Regional Findings Looking first at the pedestrian accidents that occurred in the Capitol Region from 1999 to 2001, there are few patterns apparent. While there is a tendency for accidents to occur on Fridays as opposed to other days of the week, this is not a strong pattern and more years of data might eliminate this apparent tendency. Day of Week 20.00% 18.13% 18.00% 16.89% 16.00% 14.92% 14.92% 13.69% 14.00% 13.19% 12.00% 10.00% 8.26% 8.00% 6.00% 4.00% 2.00% 0.00% Friday Sunday Monday Tuesday Saturday Thursday Wednesday Likewise, there is not a strong pattern for prevalence of pedestrian accidents by month of the year: CRCOG Pedestrian Safety Study page 1/18 June 2004 Month of Occurrence 12.00% 10.85% 9.86% 9.74% 10.00% 8.63% 8.75% 8.75% 7.89% 7.89% 8.00% 7.03% 7.27% 6.54% 6.78% 6.00% 4.00% 2.00% 0.00% July May April June March August January October February November December September Looking at the time of day of occurrence, we do see that the accidents seem to be clustered in the late afternoon and early evening, with a smaller peak in the morning. Looking at three hour segments of time, in the 3 years examined, most pedestrian accidents occur in the 3 to 6 PM time period (25%), with the second highest accident occurrence occurring from noon to 3 PM (21%). This differs slightly from national experience, where pedestrian accidents are most prevalent from 3 to 6 PM (25%) and 6 to 9 PM (21%). Looking at the factor that is defined as the contributing factor to the accident, we find that in the Capitol Region, approximately 50% of all pedestrian accidents are caused by “Unsafe use of the highway by the pedestrian”. Approximately 19% of the pedestrian accidents are caused by the CRCOG Pedestrian Safety Study page 2/18 June 2004 “driver failed to grant right of way” and a similar percent are caused by “driver’s behavior”. Similar statistics are not available on a national level to compare our regional experience with the national. Contributing Factors 60.00% 51.79% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 18.62% 18.37% 20.00% 10.00% 3.70% 4.32% 1.48% 1.73% 0.00% No action, Others Driver's Driver's Pedestrian Unsafe use of Driver failed to unknown or Condition Behavior Under the highway by grant right of conflicting Influence of a pedestrian way stories alcohol or drug Examining the pedestrian accident data on a town by town basis, we find that five of the Region’s towns have accident rates of 0.33 pedestrian accidents per 1000 population or higher: East Hartford, East Windsor, Hartford, Manchester, and West Hartford. Looking at the following table, it appears that East Windsor has a high per capita pedestrian accident rate based upon an anomaly that occurred in 2000, when the Town had more than double the number of pedestrian accidents that occurred in 1999 and 2001. The other four municipalities have higher accident rates and higher pedestrian accident volumes than the other municipalities in the Region and for this reason, they are studied in greater detail in the remainder of this analysis. CRCOG Pedestrian Safety Study page 3/18 June 2004 Town of Occurrence – Capitol Region Pedestrian Accidents 1999 2000 2001 Ave.