Thursday, November 16, 2023

Vulnerable Road User (VRU) Safety Assessment

Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) are nonmotorized road users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists, who do not have the protection of a vehicle shell. VRU injuries and fatalities have been increasing, leading to various efforts to assess and improve VRU safety. One such state-level effort is the development of a Missouri VRU safety assessment plan. This plan includes systemic analysis of intersection and segments, high-crash analysis of statewide facilities, examination of various contributory factors such as equity, unhoused pedestrians, transit, and lighting, and review of low-cost proven VRU countermeasures. Certain facilities stand out from the crash analysis such as urbanized three-legged and four-legged intersections, rural two-lane undivided highways, urbanized roadways, and controlled access roadways because of secondary crashes. Stakeholders reviewed the data-driven results and were engaged via two meetings as well as an electronic survey. For the near term, there are various low-cost countermeasures that could be deployed over intersections and entire corridors in Missouri, such as beacons and leading signal intervals. For the long term, technological solutions could help to reduce or eliminate human error of both drivers and VRUs. 


Report number: cmr 23-015
Published: November 2023
Project number: TR202322
Authors: Carlos Sun, Henry Brown, Praveen Edara, Julie Stilley, and Joe Reneker
Performing organization: University of Missouri-Columbia

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