In the interest of public safety, I propose the following alternative formula for calculating Pedestrian LOS:

When you see hundreds of cars, but only a handful of people walking or biking, that’s your clue that the street is an F. Conversely, when the streets and sidewalks are brimming with cyclists and pedestrians, you’re doing something right. It’s obviously comfortable and useful to people who would like to travel without an automotive exoskeleton. That deserves an A!

Studying the Winners and LOSers of Intersection Design

I’ve been thinking about all of this because I recently participated in a bike/ped count at a suburban intersection in my hometown of Tulsa, OK.

While traffic engineers focus on cars with a goal of preventing driver delays, I spent several hours focusing on everyone else. It was a fascinating experience that I recommend to anyone who cares about cities and the people who live in them. Every street and traffic engineer in America should be required to intimately observe their creations, because it shows just how hostile our streets are to their most vulnerable users.

If you care about fairness and equity—if you believe that the public right-of-way should serve all members of the public, not just those lucky and wealthy enough to drive a car—I encourage you to spend some time watching people as they attempt to interact with the infrastructure. It’s a humbling experience.

Pick a place to study and find an observation point.

A good place to start would be a local “hot spot,” which is the nice way to say “a dangerous street or intersection where people who walk or bike are routinely killed by people driving cars.”

I selected the intersection of South 51st and Yale in Tulsa, OK because of the number of folks I’ve seen playing Frogger across six lanes of traffic at every hour of the day and night. I wanted to learn more.

To observe the area, I looked for a place with an unobstructed view of the intersection as well as the streets and sidewalks leading up to it. I was also lucky to have some shade, which is critical when surrounded by asphalt in the summertime.

Capturing Data

I performed two 2-hour surveys: one on a weekday morning from 7-9 a.m., and another on a Saturday from 8-10 a.m. Because I was performing the count for the local Municipal Planning Authority, I used the tally sheet they provided.