FHWA and PBIC Announce Free Webinar on HAWK and RRFB
News Brief
November 17, 2020
CHAPEL HILL , NC—The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) announce a free webinar on pedestrian crossing treatments:
Safety and Operations of the Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon (HAWK) and Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB)
Wednesday, November 30, 2020
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. E.S.T.
The Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon, or HAWK, is a pedestrian-activated beacon located on the roadside and on mast arms over the major approaches to an intersection. The HAWK head consists of two red lenses over a single yellow lens. It displays a red indication to drivers when activated, which creates a gap for pedestrians to use to cross the major roadway. The beacon was created in Tucson, AZ and is currently used at 114 locations in that city. It is also being used in a number of other cities throughout the United States.
The Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) is a midrange cost countermeasure for increasing yielding to pedestrians at marked crosswalks that traverse multilane roads with moderate to high vehicle volumes. The device consists of high intensity yellow beacons (with a similar flash pattern to those installed on emergency vehicles) mounted on the pedestrian crossing signs.
Kay Fitzpatrick, of the Texas Transportation Institute, and Richard Nassi, of the Pima Association of Governments, will discuss the origin of the HAWK and current installation and operational experiences. Ron Van Houten, of Western Michigan University, will present information on the RRFB, such as implementation guidance and results of recent studies.
This webinar is one of the free webinars that FHWA offers quarterly as part of its Pedestrian Safety Focus States and Cities initiatives. FHWA's Safety Office is trying to aggressively reduce pedestrian deaths by focusing extra resources on the states and cities with the highest pedestrian fatalities and/or fatality rates. Webinar archives for this series, as well as listings of upcoming sessions, can be found at http://www.walkinginfo.org/training/pbic/pedfocus_webinars.cfm.
PBIC offers free, public Webinars approximately every other month. To register for upcoming Webinars and to access archived presentations, please visit www.walkinginfo.org/webinars.
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