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WHAT strategies to invest in: The process of evaluating the dozens of potential safety strategies to address pedestrian and bicycle safety is often complicated by perceptions held by residents and elected officials that are based on their intuition, but are often contrary to the facts. A way to deal with the challenge of addressing these perceptions is for city staff to be aware of facts documented by research regarding the effectiveness of pedestrian and bicycle strategies and where on the spectrum of proven not effective to proven effective does each strategy fall. Examples of strategies proven not to be effective include: • Marked Crosswalks: The addition of marked crosswalks alone, without more substantial roadway or traffic control treatments, has NOT been found to reduce pedestrian crash rates. • Traffic Signals: Traffic signals are used to assign right of way to conflicting streams of traffic (vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles) at intersections. By themselves, traffic signals are not considered to be effective safety devices for vehicles, pedestrians or bicycles. Signalized intersections have the highest rate and severity of crashes among intersection traffic control devices and more than one-half of pedestrian and bicycle crashes in Minnesota occur at signalized intersections. Reduced Urban Speed Limits: There is no information in published research to support the notion that lowering urban speed limits either reduces actual operating speeds or serious crashes involving pedestrians and bicycles. MnDOT has conducted more than a dozen local studies and FHWA conducted a national study where speed limits were artificially lowered by changing the numbers on regulatory speed limit signs. In no case was driver behavior changed. Regarding the safety effect of lowering urban speed limits on serious pedestrian and bicycle crashes, it should be noted that each of the four states that border Minnesota have a 25 mph statutory urban speed limit but has a fatal pedestrian and bicycle crash rate that is 11%to 64% higher than Minnesota's. On -Road Bike Lanes: On -Road bike lanes have been deployed extensively around the country and in Minnesota but are not considered to be an effective safety strategy because research results are almost equally divided between locations where bike crashes increased versus locations where bike crashes decreased. Examples of strategies proven effective include: • Sidewalks: Constructing sidewalks have been found to decrease "Walking in Roadway" pedestrian crashes by 50%- 90%. • Median Crossing/Refuge Islands: Adding Median Crossing/ Refuge Islands have been found to reduce pedestrian and bicycle crashes by 39%-46%. Curb extensions have been found to reduce pedestrian and bicycle crashes by 39%-46%. • Crosswalk lighting: Adding Crosswalk lighting has been found to reduce pedestrian and bicycle crashes by 33%-44%. Source: MnDOT 16 Page 148 of 185