Crosswalks: New standard increases safety
The Swiss Association of Road and Traffic Professionals has presented the new SN 640241 standard: it regulates the requirements for a safe pedestrian crossing. It demands higher requirements for visibility conditions. The requirement for pedestrian protection islands has also been strengthened. In addition, pedestrian crossings are no longer permitted in 80 km/h zones, writes the association.
"We can present a super standard today," said Patrick Eberling, head of traffic engineering at the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) at the symposium on the new pedestrian lane standard SN 640241 in Bern. Eberling is a member of the VSS working group "Pedestrian Stripes", which is made up of representatives from the Federal Roads Office (Astra), the bfu, as well as engineers and road safety officials. The working group was commissioned by the federal government in September 2013 to draw up a new standard.
According to Lukas Ostermayr, president of the working group, the result that is now available is a "practical compromise", because a perfect standard from the point of view of safety is of no use if it is not applied in practice. "The new standard is more user-friendly than the old one and at the same time offers a high level of safety," Ostermayr explains.
Tightening
Safety at pedestrian crossings has been increased in the new standard with some innovations or tightenings. For example, significantly higher requirements apply to the visibility conditions at pedestrian crossings. The visibility (distance from which pedestrians and drivers can see each other) is now based on an approach area and no longer only on a viewpoint. The required sight distance corresponds to the minimum stopping distance for vehicles and is defined as a function of the speed at which the vehicle is traveling. Furthermore, a so-called recognition distance (distance from which vehicle drivers recognize the pedestrian crossing) has now been included in the standard. It should be twice as large as the required sight distance.
A great increase in safety is also brought by the increased requirement for pedestrian protection islands, which are mandatory when the lane width is at least 8.5 m or when there are several lanes in the same direction. In addition, pedestrian crossings are now only permitted in areas where the signalized speed or so-called V85 (speed not exceeded by 85% of vehicles) is lower than or equal to 60 km/h. This means, for example, that in fast-moving 50 km/h sections where the V85 is greater than 60 km/h, pedestrian crossings may no longer be arranged without traffic signals or measures to reduce the speed must be taken in advance.
Press release VSS
More details on the new standard can be found in the latest issue of the VSS magazine "Road and Traffic" (at www.vss.ch, magazine s+v, e-paper).
