Characteristics of Emerging Road and Trail Users and Their Safety

Station 6-Speed

Speed is defined as the normal cruising speed of users on a flat, smooth section of a shared use path. The speed characteristics of emerging road and trail users are generally influenced by age, gender, experience, weather and pavement conditions, operating conditions, and facility geometrics.⁽⁸⁾ Practitioners can use typical cruising speeds to develop design speeds for each user group. Design speed is critical in determining horizontal and vertical alignments. Speed is also used in calculating necessary sight distances.

Time-stamped video was obtained of both active and in situ participants as they traversed the section of trail marked with lateral lines within Station 5 (figure 39). The video was subsequently reviewed to determine the times that participants crossed each of the two lines. The data entry spreadsheet was set up to calculate the average speeds based on these recorded times.

Figure 39. Speed (and sweep width) station.

^8.  Birriel, E., J.C. Pernia, J.J. Lu, and T.A. Petritsch. The Operational Characteristics of Inline Skaters. University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, January 2001.