Bicyclists and pedestrians are among the most vulnerable users of our transportation system. Understanding their experiences can help communities improve policies, infrastructure, educational programming, and other efforts.
We have extensive experience conducting naturalistic biking studies, with both children and adults, to examine how they navigate their community. We also analyze crash patterns to better understand how they impact bicycle and pedestrian mobility.
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4-to-3 Lane Conversions and Emergency Response
Road diet projects can reallocate roadway space to provide dedicated lanes for bicycles and left turning vehicles. Because these conversions reduce the number of general purpose travel lanes in each direction, concerns are often raised that these projects may negatively impact emergency response by slowing fire trucks and ambulances. This study of 4-to-3 lane conversion projects in Cedar Rapids, Iowa found no difference in emergency response rates before and after the road diets. Survey results did suggect public guidance may be needed on how to properly yield to EMS vehicles on these roadways. Learn more about 4-to-3 lane conversions from Iowa DOT.
This study was funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation Traffic Safety Improvement Program (TSIP).
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Parent-Child Pedestrian Roadway Crossing
Collisions with motor vehicles are a major cause of death and disability for child pedestrians. In 2020 alone, collisions with vehicles resulted in 177 deaths and 5,223 injuries involving child pedestrians ages 14 years and younger (NCSA, 2022). Parents play a critical role in teaching children how to safely navigate traffic, yet virtually nothing is known about how parents and children interact when crossing roads together. The goal of this project is to develop and use a wearable pedestrian instrumentation system to study parent-child interactions during naturalistic road crossing. Similar to systems used in the TRIPS Lab to study bicycling safety, this study uses head-mounted DJI cameras that parents and children wear while taking walks together in the natural environment. This allows us to record what parents and children see, hear, and say while crossing roads together. The long-term goal of the project is to improve childhood pedestrian safety by developing a parent-based intervention for teaching children how to cross roads safely. As the study progresses, more information can be found through the Hank Virtual Environments Lab.
This study is funded by the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC).
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