Evaluating the Safety of Shared-Use Paths

Abstract

The project described in this paper involved the design of a survey of shared-use path safety for use at three facilities in Connecticut in the fall of 2002 and the summer of 2003. The objective was to collect self-reported information on collision and fall events and on travel exposure so that crash rates could be developed. The analysis of the self-reported events and travel patterns provides complementary data that are not available from other sources but are needed to address safety concerns on these facilities. The strengths of this approach include the collection of underreported minor events and the ability to estimate travel exposure and thus allow the estimation of crash rates per unit distance. The sample size of 684 was sufficient only for the development of aggregate crash rates, which suggest that skaters have the highest rates, followed by bicyclists and then pedestrians. The bicycle event rate was three times that of pedestrians, while the rate for skaters was more than six times that for pedestrians. Falls were more frequently reported than collisions, and they were more often associated with an injury. The overall incident rate for each of the three individual facilities was the highest for the path with the highest user volume and highest percentage of skaters and cyclists.