Phoenix High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk (HAWK) Updates

Challenge: Safety is one of Phoenix’s primary goals, and the City sought to evaluate pedestrian safety at crossing locations along several roadway corridors throughout the City. Based on our experience and expertise in safety evaluations and traffic signal design, the city selected our ITS team to perform the evaluation for HAWK signals.

Solution: The ITS design team prepared the traffic engineering analysis along twelve different corridors to identify optimum crosswalk locations to implement a High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk (HAWK) beacon signal for improving pedestrian safety. Through this analysis, the team concluded that the interaction between land uses, such as convenience stores, restaurants, liquor stores, bus stops, apartments, and schools, plays a crucial role and influences the paths pedestrians take. As such, the HAWKS and crosswalks are placed on the paths pedestrians will likely take for them to be used and to be effective.

The ITS team identified optimum locations for the HAWK signals with respect to pedestrian and traffic needs and roadway conditions. The design for the HAWKs also involved coordination with the City of Glendale at two locations, given that the proposed HAWK location existed along the boundary between the two cities.

In addition to analyzing each location individually, the design team went beyond the scope to discover crossing patterns and correlate them with factors such as lighting conditions during the dark. This information proved very useful in prioritizing locations and helped the City identify the need for improved street lighting in several corridors. In addition to the HAWK designs, the team prepared a streetlight design for the corridor.

Benefit: The High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk Beacons are well-received by users and are a source of pride for the City of Phoenix. The City has installed nearly 100 HAWKs, and the ITS team is proud to have designed over 25% of the systems.