BACKGROUND                                                        

There are two major types of bus stops (hereinafter referred to as transit boarding islands) that separate the classic sidewalk-to-bus loading process: (1) floating bus islands for boarding (i.e., boarding islands separated from the sidewalk by cut-through bicycle lane(s)) and (2) extended sidewalks that connect the existing sidewalk to the transit stop, thus requiring bicyclists to cross the shared waiting area for bus/rail loading. These transit boarding islands enable people riding bicycles to bypass the conflict zone where transit vehicles would otherwise block access to bike lanes as transit vehicles pull curbside to board and alight passengers. While the transit boarding islands reduce conflicts between bicyclists and transit vehicles, they introduce conflicts between bicyclists and pedestrians. These conflicts occur because the transit boarding islands usually require pedestrians to cross the bikeway when traveling to or from the platform where the transit stop is located.

The majority of people with vision disabilities are pedestrians and transit riders. Making public rights-of-way, including bike facilities, safely accessible to people with vision disabilities is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and supported by special funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for transportation safety programs to reduce crashes and fatalities, with a particular focus on bicyclists and pedestrians. Bicycles affect the safety of pedestrians with vision disabilities in the vicinity of bike facilities because bicycles are largely inaudible, especially in the relatively noisy environments of public rights-of-way. Of particular concern is safe access to transit boarding islands.

There are numerous sources for design guidelines for protected bicycle facilities across the United States, including guidelines for transit boarding islands. However, there is limited research on enhancing the safety of vision-disabled pedestrians. Planning and Designing Streets to be Safer and More Accessible for People with Vision Disabilities—A Toolkit for Montgomery County and the Metropolitan Washington Region (2021) contains several suggested treatments to improve safety and wayfinding for pedestrians with vision disabilities. Still, human factors research does not validate their effectiveness, and no treatments are suggested for improving the safety of pedestrians with vision disabilities when crossing bike lanes. Getting to the Curb: A Guide to Building Protected Bike Lanes That Work for Pedestrians (2019), San Francisco Vision Zero Coalition contains information about the challenges for people with disabilities at transit boarding islands with design considerations in the layout options. Its conclusion includes suggestions for practitioners to work closely “with seniors, people with disabilities, and disability organizations to codesign and pilot context-appropriate solutions.” Human factors research is needed to address several issues related to bicycle yielding and detection of drop-offs where there is grade separation between pedestrians and bicycles.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to produce guidelines for transportation planners and engineers to make transit boarding islands safe and accessible for pedestrians with vision disabilities and all other users. 

RESEARCH PLAN

The research shall produce design principles for each of three zones:

1. Boarding island and platform, including minimum attributes for accessible waiting and boarding spaces; 
2. Bike lane crossings (including those that overlap with bus boarding areas) that control bicycle speeds, make bicycle yielding reliable and predictable, and create accessible routes between and across zones for pedestrians to feel safe and comfortable when crossing; and
3. Sidewalk, including edge detection between the bike lane and sidewalk and detectable wayfinding features for identifying and navigating the bus stop.

Guidelines resulting from this research may form the basis for recommended practices and treatments for bicycle design guides as they are updated and may have implications for updates of the FHWA’s Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices and the U.S. Access Board’s Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines for the Public Right--of-Way or others. 

The research should include the following items as they relate to the accessibility of floating transit islands:

• A review of U.S. and international research and practice
• A review of existing guidelines
• Challenges encountered by passengers with a range of vision disabilities and passengers with vision disabilities who might have other disabilities such as mobility, hearing, and cognitive
• A review of current and future wayfinding treatments used to improve the accessibility for passengers with vision disabilities
• Analysis of conflicts experienced between people using transit and people traveling in the bike lane (bicyclists, scooters users, etc.)
• Results of human factors research conducted under this project. Some human factors include
  • Yielding rate and factors affecting whether bicyclists stop for pedestrians crossing the bike lane zone between sidewalk and transit boarding area
  • Factors affecting whether people stand in the bicycle lane zone when a transit vehicle is not present
  • Factors affecting whether people cross the bike lane zone outside of marked crosswalks
  • Whether tactile devices (curbs, guide strips, tiles, etc.) are detectable, understood, and free of tripping hazards
  • Number of crossings across the zone
• Design functions for each of the three zones
• Validation analysis (e.g., yielding, user delay) for treatments to enhance safety for pedestrians and passengers with vision disabilities. Examples of treatments may include
  • Elements that make approaching bicycle traffic detectable to people with a vision or hearing disability
  • Technology, including signalization, that is currently applied or could be applied in the future to make the three zones listed earlier accessible to passengers with vision disabilities
  • Tactile, visual, and audible cues for pedestrians and cyclists
• Analysis of other operational considerations (where appropriate), such as the challenges between bicycles and transit vehicles and the impact on delay of traffic control devices at the bicycle crossings
• Identify best practices (frameworks and/or paradigms), lessons learned, and recommendations (could include recommendations for different traffic considerations, bus operations considerations, strategies to make bicycles more audible, shelter placements, audible and electronic signals, training, etc.)
• Evaluation criteria for when traffic control devices are appropriate for making bidirectional crossings safe and predictable

This research will result in a guide and products to assist transit agencies, departments of transporation (DOTs), and other stakeholders to implement the results of the study. Some examples are videos, toolkits, checklists, an interactive matrix organizing strategies by resources and cost, a training curriculum, and/or other avenues for sharing the information. A sustainability plan for the ongoing use of the specific tools should be included. 

The research plan shall be divided into tasks that present, in detail, the work proposed in each task. The research plan shall describe appropriate deliverables that include, but are not limited to, the following (which also represent key project milestones):

• An interim report (i.e., a technical memoranda or report) and panel teleconference, which occurs after the expenditure of no more than 40 percent of the project budget,
• Draft report,
• Final report, and 
• Technical memorandum, titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products”.

STATUS: Work has been initiated. The kick-off/update meeting is scheduled for January 23, 2025.