After successful adoption of an impressive Complete Streets Policy, the Safe Mobility Commission in Dormont, Pennsylvania is taking the first strides toward implementation through the installation of a new Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB).
Dormont’s commitment to safe mobility
Dormont is a borough of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania with a population of 8,593 residents, of which 92.1 percent are white, 3.1 percent are Black, and 4.5 percent are Hispanic or Latino. A suburb of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Dormont is a tight-knit, densely populated community, characterized by street festivals and other community events. The sense of care that many of its residents have for the area has resulted in many community members coming together to better the borough, perhaps most notably in regards to transportation safety.
In 2022, the Safe Mobility Plan established Dormont’s commitment to and mechanisms for achieving zero pedestrian injuries and/or fatalities through environmentally friendly transportation infrastructure and multimodal transportation support. Out of this plan arose the creation of the Safe Mobility Commission, previously known as the Parking and Traffic Planning Commission.
Earlier this year, Smart Growth America concluded their third year of the Active People, Healthy NationSM Champions Institute which is designed to help local elected officials become effective champions for Complete Streets, downtown revitalization, demonstration projects, and other local initiatives to build activity-friendly communities. Representing Dormont was Councilmember Jennifer Mazzocco. During the Champions Institute, Mazzocco drafted Dormont’s Complete Streets Policy which passed in 2023. The policy was an impressive commitment to multimodal street design which aims to implement safe, reliable, convenient, affordable, and accessible transportation in Dormont.
As a part of her goal to implement the policy, Mazzocco worked with Smart Growth America to utilize the Benefits of Complete Streets tool that allows us to predict how many more lives are likely to be lost without safety interventions. These results can then build political will to improve pedestrian safety through infrastructural and design changes. These leaps forward have put in place strong policy and groups to support the proposed changes; now, Dormont is putting their commitment to safe mobility into action.
The long road to a safer crossing
Dormont’s Safe Mobility Commission, established in order to implement Dormont’s Complete Streets Policy, found one place in their community that stood out amongst the rest as a challenge for pedestrian safety: West Liberty Avenue (State Route 19). Along this road, the intersection of Kelton Avenue and West Liberty Avenue poses significant risk to pedestrians wishing to cross the busy road. As a four-way, offset, staggered intersection with no pedestrian support outside of a painted crosswalk, people that are walking or rolling often have to wait until there is a break in traffic to cross.
Beyond being a high traffic area, the West Liberty Avenue/Kelton Avenue intersection presents significant challenges to pedestrian safety. All reported pedestrian injuries in Dormont have taken place on West Liberty Avenue. Typically a four-lane highway, the road is sometimes converted to a two-lane road during business hours. As a result, parked cars act as obstructions, limiting the ability for pedestrians to know when to cross safely and, perhaps more importantly, limiting the visibility of pedestrians to drivers. When obstructions combine with limited infrastructure crossing support, a staggered intersection, and clear pedestrian demand, safety design measures must consider various approaches at solving the issue.
Many Dormont residents have raised safety concerns about the Kelton Avenue crosswalk. The former council president for the Borough of Dormont, Daniele Ventresca, has heard the stories of numerous close calls at the intersection in addition to experiencing them herself. She described “narrowly” avoiding “being hit by a vehicle” while using the crosswalk “eight years ago.” After this experience, her “concerns were brushed aside by a previous council,” ultimately motivating her to run for council president. In the past 5 years, the council has discussed pedestrian safety at this intersection in great detail.
Initial debates on how to make this crossing safer originally theorized that it may be best to discourage crossing here completely by removing the painted crosswalk. “Convincing the six other council members to reconsider a traffic engineer’s study that recommended removing the crosswalk and to explore alternative pedestrian safety measures was an uphill battle,” noted Councilwoman Ventresca.
At the heart of this debate was the fact that the area would likely be crossed with or without pedestrian safeguards. West Liberty Avenue divides the community, splitting up services and public transportation from residential areas. Furthermore, many students and their families need to cross West Liberty Avenue to access the middle and high schools that lie on the other side of it. Without access to a bus system, many students rely on walking to school and those who are driven by family members often choose that due to safety concerns.
The road also divides single-family and multifamily housing units. Although income and other demographic differences between these two areas aren’t large, a majority of services are on the side of West Liberty Avenue with single-family homes and a slightly higher average income. Removing a crosswalk from this area would impact the many people who need to cross here, requiring them to walk approximately 900 ft, nearly a tenth of a mile, to cross at Dormont Avenue or approximately 700 ft to cross at Hillsdale Avenue. In comparison, simply crossing the street at this intersection is only a 55 ft walk. Considering these factors, the Safe Mobility Commission concluded that people will cross and that they deserve to do so safely.
In a statement from Councilwoman Jennifer Mazzocco, she reflected on a time when she found herself in favor of removing the crosswalk after hearing recommendations from traffic engineers. However, this perspective was shifted after a community input forum. Elected officials can face challenges when balancing data-based conclusions and the knowledge of what community members desire, but in this case, the path forward was clear after hearing from residents. Dormont is turning its attention to the enhancement of community safety, which meant keeping this crosswalk in place.
How a rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB) could making crossing West Liberty Avenue safer
After a three-year-long application process for a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation grant, Dormont has received funding for the implementation of a beacon, including raised crosswalk signs with large flashing lights that pedestrians can signal when they wish to cross.
Considering that pedestrians typically need to wait for a break in traffic, these beacons will allow those who walk or roll to cross when they need to, and safely. Some research on RRFBs suggest that they can be extremely effective in reducing pedestrian injuries and fatalities, resulting in vehicles yielding up to 98 percent of the time. With just the beacon alone, the Borough is expecting that there will be a speed reduction of 10 miles per hour.
Although signals are a worthwhile method for reducing speed limits, additional street design changes would likely take this project even further. In order to address Dormont’s challenges with pedestrian safety at this intersection, the commission has proposed a design change that signifies a shift away from prioritizing speed and toward pedestrian safety.
Predicting the impacts of RRFB implementation on Dormont’s pedestrian safety
To examine the potential benefits of the project, Mazzocco used the Measuring the Benefits of Complete Streets tool developed by Smart Growth America in partnership with CDC’s Active People, Healthy Nation℠ Initiative. By applying this tool to predict the impacts of proposed Complete Streets improvements, she discovered and quantified numerous benefits that simple changes in road design could bring.
The Benefits of Complete Streets tool was developed by Smart Growth America in partnership with CDC’s Active People, Healthy Nation℠ Initiative to help communities quantify the long-term benefits of Complete Streets projects. Learn more about the tool at benefits.completestreets.org.
Increased safety
When the speed limit in the study area was reduced from 50 mph to 40 mph, pedestrian safety improved. In combination with the RRFB installation, the impacts of speed limit reduction will lower fatality risk by 61.3 percent. These impacts illustrate how reduced speeds and safe infrastructure can significantly increase the safety of people walking on our roadways.
Installing the pedestrian hybrid beacon will result in a crash reduction factor of 28.8 percent. Over a 20-year period, there will be 13 less injuries occurring at this intersection with the build than without it. This displays the benefits of a small project while also pointing to the fact that one installation is a small first step in improving street safety. Creating safer streets through design changes require more work and consistent consideration for those who walk or roll across all streets.
Economic development
With a 10-point increase in their walkability score (from the already high score of 85 to the predicted future walkability score of 95), Dormont can expect to see even more foot traffic visiting nearby restaurants, shops, and other services along the area. When Dormont’s residents can access resources safely without the need for a vehicle, those business owners will also see the benefits of complete streets.
The long-run property value growth rate estimated from this project is an increase of 3.0 percent per year. These findings demonstrate that the entire community can benefit from safer streets that open the doors to multi-modal transportation. The Benefits of Complete Streets Tool can help garner public support for these projects, but it is important that this work does not stop here.
Councilmember Jennifer Mazzocco and the Safe Mobility Commission are working to implement the pedestrian hybrid beacon this year, and the work only starts there. Recently, Mazzocco has been elected as Dormont’s Council President. Councilwoman Mazzocco continues forward with her advocacy for safer streets, stating that Dormont should be “safer now” in order for all in the “community to benefit.” With the Complete Streets Policy in place, Dormont is taking its first steps toward safer streets for all.