Practical Application of Pedestrian Exposure Tools: Expanding Southeast Region Results Statewide

Improving pedestrian safety is a priority in the Wisconsin State Highway Safety Plan, but pedestrian volumes, which indicate exposure to potential traffic accidents, are only available in a limited number of locations and lack consistency across the state. To address this, a project was initiated to update the Wisconsin State Highway System roadway database by incorporating pedestrian volume estimates. A model developed in the WisDOT Southeast Region was applied to estimate annual pedestrian crossing volumes at four-way intersections throughout the State Highway System. This data could assist safety analysts in prioritizing intersections with high crash rates and identifying intersection designs with elevated risk levels. However, the pedestrian volume estimates are preliminary, and the project’s focus shifted to collecting data for model validation and refinement. The project was conducted between October 2021 and September 2022, as a follow-up to a pilot study completed in 2021, and its main phases are described in the following sections.

Use the tool: Wisconsin Pedestrian Volume Model Tool