Federal Highway Administration
400 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590

Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. Thomas Mericle
City Transportation Engineer
City of San Buenaventura
501 Poli Street
Ventura, CA 93002-0099

Dear Mr. Mericle:

Thank you for your February 26 letter requesting permission to experiment with pedestrian countdown signals at seven intersections in Ventura. Due to irradiation of all mail addressed to government agencies here in Washington, DC, delivery of your letter was significantly delayed. We did not receive it until March 20. We have reviewed the material that was submitted in support of your request to experiment, and we concur with it, with the following exceptions:

• Please collect the before and after data on the same day(s) of the week and during the same hours of the day. Enclosed is a checklist indicating the type and quantities of data to be collected and a data collection form for your use.
• For consistency with other experimentations with pedestrian countdown displays that are being conducted by other jurisdictions around the country, please set up the countdown equipment so that the countdown is only timed and displayed during the flashing Don’t Walk indication, and not during the Walk indication.
• Also, please note that the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Transportation Operations retains the right to terminate approval of the experimentation at any time if there is an indication of safety concerns.

Your experimentation request is approved for a 2-year time period, subject to the three modifications outlined above. For future reference purposes, we have assigned the following official experimentation number and title to your request: "4-248 (Ex)--Pedestrian Countdown Signals-San Buenaventura." Please refer to this number in future correspondence.

We look forward to receiving notifications of implementation date, your semiannual progress reports and final report. If we can be of further assistance, please contact Mr. Scott Wainwright on 202-366-0857.

Sincerely yours,

Shelley J. Row, P.E.
Director, Office of Transportation
Operations