WSU Transportation Research Group receives NHTSA grant to improve pedestrian safety in Detroit

The Wayne State University Transportation Research Group (WSU-TRG) has won a two-year $625,000 National Highway Transportation Safety Administration grant to develop a national model for pedestrian safety.

"Last year, total pedestrian fatalities in the city of Detroit was the fourth highest in the nation," said Professor Tapan Datta, director of the WSU Transportation Safety Group, which provides critical analysis and evaluation of the nation and Michigan's highway and safety programs. "We will work with our partners and other stakeholders in designing selective enforcement and education strategies and programs to heighten public awareness on how to be safer pedestrians and drivers."

The grant partners are: MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation), AAA Michigan, the OHSP (Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning), the city of Detroit, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), Wayne County Road Commission, Detroit Police Department, and many other stakeholders

For American cities with 500,000 or more residents, Detroit consistently ranks in the top five in the number of pedestrian fatalities each year. Over the past five years, there was an average of 42 pedestrian fatalities in the City of Detroit. Experts say a lack of appropriate pedestrian traffic control infrastructure and pedestrian unfriendly roads make Detroit roads among the most dangerous in the nation for pedestrians. The high rate pedestrian crashes and injuries is also partly a result of driver attitudes toward pedestrians, as well as pedestrian behavior in crossing roads and highways.

Datta believes the carnage can be significantly reduced through education, beginning with children in elementary schools.

As a result of cooperative work of WSU-TRG, the City, and AAA Michigan, countdown pedestrian signals were installed several years ago at two of the busiest intersections around Wayne State University. Sixty-two countdown pedestrian signals are now in place at strategic intersections throughout the city of Detroit.

Studies conducted by the TRG were critical to physical improvements to many high-risk traffic intersections and corridors in the city of Detroit as a part of road improvement demonstration program, resulting in the saving of many lives and critical injuries over the past decade.