Dr. Sanders was a Co-PI on this National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) project to develop an illustrative guidebook to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety at intersections. The project included a literature review, practitioner survey, and original research. The final guidance complements established resources like PEDSafe and BIKESafe by providing selection criteria and insights regarding important considerations for implementing pedestrian and bicycle countermeasure combinations in various contexts.

Partners: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Toole Design, and Kittelson & Associates

Dr. Sanders led this project, which included an extensive literature review of speed-related countermeasures across the traditional pillars of the “5 E’s”, a brief survey of practitioners involved in speed management and pedestrian safety efforts, and expanded interviews with a diverse set of case cities that had demonstrated success in using speed management techniques to improve pedestrian safety. The report concludes with priority research needs to address pedestrian safety and speed in the future.

Partner: Toole Design

Drs. Sanders and Schoner are key team members on this project, which includes a comprehensive literature review, practitioner interviews, state- and city-level crash analyses, surrogate safety analysis, and driver simulation to provide insights into and design guidance related to preventing turn-related motor vehicle-bicycle crashes. We are involved throughout the project, including providing feedback on all deliverables and critical insights into bicycle crash patterns and related design considerations. We are also leading the multi-jurisdictional crash analysis that will clarify priority bicycle crash types and inform future human factors testing and design guidance. We will also co-author the design and policy conclusions in the final report.

Partners: Toole Design, Portland State University, and Oregon State University

Dr. Sanders is a subject matter expert on this project to create national design guidance for mid-block bicycle facility design. This project includes a broad literature review, state of the practice survey, and crash analysis. She will provide insights related to the crash analysis and expert review of all deliverables and research efforts.

Partners: Texas Transportation Institute, Toole Design, and Portland State University

Dr. Sanders was a subject matter expert on this project to develop a guidebook for roadway reallocation in urban and suburban contexts. This project included a broad literature review, practitioner interviews, and original research. In her role, Rebecca provided insights about pedestrian and bicyclist safety and behavior and larger transportation equity principles, as well as expert review of deliverables. She helped design the original research and contributed to the final research report and guidebook.

Partners: Kittelson & Associates, North Carolina State University, and MobyCon

Dr. Sanders is a researcher on this project to create safety performance functions for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists and develop a systemic safety plan for Montgomery County, Maryland. She led the bicycle crash analysis to identify high-priority bicycle crash types, will support the pedestrian and bicycle volume estimation, and will estimate the bicycle safety performance functions. She will also contribute to the final countermeasure recommendations and report.

Partner: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Dr. Sanders was the Principal Investigator on this research project to examine factors related to pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries in darkness as compared to daylight. The findings indicate that pedestrian fatalities on roadways with speed limits of 30 mph or more are significantly more likely in darkness than in daylight, underscoring a key disconnect between roadway design for vehicle throughput and design for pedestrian safety. She led the analysis of California DOT (SWITRS) crash data, co-led the analysis of Fatality Reporting System (FARS) data, and wrote the forthcoming journal article discussing the results.

Partners: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Frank Proulx Consulting LLC