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As pedestrian fatalities in the United States reach a 40-year high, a novel approach to measuring crosswalk lengths across entire cities could provide urban planners with crucial data to improve safety interventions.

NYU Tandon School of Engineering researchers Marcel Moran and Debra F. Laefer published the first comprehensive, city-wide analysis of crosswalk distances in the Journal of the American Planning Association. Moran is an Urban Science Faculty Fellow at the Center for Urban Science + Progress (CUSP), and Laefer is a Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering and CUSP faculty member.

"In general, lots of important data related to cities' pedestrian realm is analog (so it exists only in old diagrams and is not machine readable), is not comprehensive, or both," said lead author Moran, highlighting the gap this study fills.

"We know that longer crosswalks pose increased safety risks to pedestrians, but rarely are cities sitting on up-to-date, comprehensive data about their own crosswalks. So even answering the question, 'What are the 100 longest crossings in our city?' is not easy. We want to change that."

This study's unique contribution lies in its scale and methodology, potentially providing a powerful new tool for city planners to identify and address high-risk areas.

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