Background
Research has shown that higher vehicular speeds are related to increased pedestrian injury severity and death. It is unclear, however, if lowering vehicle speeds in residential areas would result in lower frequency of pedestrian-involved crashes. This study built upon the pilot work of Blomberg and Cleven (2006) that tested the Heed the Speed initiative on a small scale in Phoenix and Peoria, Arizona. In that study, it was found that the program significantly reduced vehicle speeds on the road segments where it was implemented.
The current project focused on determining if the enforcement, education, and engineering approaches of the pilot program could be scaled up as a city-based countermeasure that might produce a reduction in the frequency of pedestrian-involved crashes.
