Federal Highway Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 Seventh St., SW
Washington, DC 20590

April 10, 2003

Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. Randall R. Wooley
City Traffic Engineer
City of Beaverton
P.O. Box 4755
Beaverton, OR 97076

Dear Mr. Wooley:

Thank you for your March 24 letter requesting approval to experiment with pedestrian countdown signal displays at seven intersections in Beaverton, Oregon.

As you are aware, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) for Revision No. 2 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). That NPA includes the proposed addition of pedestrian countdown displays for optional use, with uniform design and operation when used. The docket for comments on this and the other proposals closed on August 19, 2002, and a Final Rule for Revision No. 2 is anticipated sometime in the late summer or early fall of 2003. Until such time as a Final Rule is issued, countdown pedestrian displays are still considered experimental. We approve your request to experiment with pedestrian countdown displays at the seven intersections in Beaverton as detailed in your letter, with the following conditions:

1. The countdown displays and operation should correspond to those detailed in the proposed MUTCD Revision No. 2.
2. Your evaluation to address user response should be conducted after the countdown displays are installed and after users have had a chance to become accustomed to them.
3. Per Section 1A.10 of the MUTCD the experimentation must be terminated at any time that you determine that significant safety concerns are directly or indirectly attributable to the experimentation. Also, please note that the FHWA’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 request to experiment is approved for 1 year or until such time as a final ruling on the proposed MUTCD Revision No. 2 is made, whichever occurs first. Upon issuance of a final ruling on proposed MUTCD Revision No. 2, the city of Beaverton may be required to modify or remove the pedestrian countdown displays depending on the details of the Final Rule.

For future reference, we have numbered and titled this experimentation as "4-261(Ex)– Beaverton, OR Pedestrian Countdown." Please reference this number in any future correspondence. Again, we do appreciate your interest in improving conditions for pedestrians and if we can be of further assistance, please contact Mr. Scott Wainwright at 202-366-0857.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Scott L. Battles (for)

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

Federal Highway Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 Seventh St., SW
Washington, DC 20590

May 6, 2003

Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. Randall R. Wooley
City Traffic Engineer
City of Beaverton
P.O. Box 4755
Beaverton, OR 97076

Dear Mr. Wooley:

Thank you for your April 3 letter requesting approval to add one additional intersection to your previously approved experiment (4-261) with pedestrian countdown signal displays at seven intersections in Beaverton, Oregon.

We have no objection to the addition of this eighth location to the list of seven locations approved for experimentation in our April 10, 2003, letter to you. Approval of this eighth location is subject to the same terms and conditions as outlined in our April 10 letter. Should you wish to add more intersections in the future to your experimentation under the same terms and conditions, please just advise us of the additional locations. You can do so by fax 202-366-3225 or email to Mr. Scott Wainwright of this office at scott.wainwright@fhwa.dot.gov.

Again, we do appreciate your interest in improving conditions for pedestrians and if we can be of further assistance, please contact Mr. Scott Wainwright at 202-366-0857.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Shelley Row

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