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

Refer to: HOTO-1
September 18, 2002

Mr. Gus Woodman
City of Avondale
Field Operations Department
395 East Lower Buckeye Road
Avondale, AZ 85323

Dear Mr. Woodman:

Thank you for your letter requesting experimentation with yellow-green pavement markings for school zone crossings. You have our approval to begin installing the marking material. We will provide you further details on data collection recommendations in the near future.

We have received several inquiries on experimentation with the yellow-green pavement marking materials. We are working with the research staff at the Federal Highway Administration’s Turner Fairbanks Highway Research Center in developing guidance for an effective evaluation plan and data gathering. The following is a non-exclusive list of data that we recommend be collected for both before and after conditions:

Vehicle speeds
Vehicle volumes
Pedestrian volumes
Driver behavior (on-set of braking, yielding, etc.)
Pedestrian behavior (when there is no crossing guard)
Weather conditions
Time of day
Time of year

We also recommend including a control site at a comparable school (elementary, middle, or high school) crossing location in order to validate data collection. This same data would also be collected at that site. If crossing guards are used then, they should be used at both sites. We hope to have a sample data collection form in the near future. Please note that it is not critical that your "after" data collection take place this fall. The collection of the data in the spring would be acceptable and may even be preferred since the novelty effect may wear off, and it would also allow for some weathering of the material.

Please revise your evaluation plan to include the items mentioned above. It is recommended that the white markings at the control site and the contrasting markings be installed at the same time.

For reference purposes, we have assigned your request the following official experimentation number and title: "7-49(E)-Yellow-Green Pavement Markings for School Crosswalks." Please refer to this number in future correspondence. To expedite the approval process you may fax your plan to us at 202-366-3225.

If you have any questions, please call Ms. Cherie L. Kittle at 202-366-2188.

Sincerely yours,

Ernie Huckaby (for)

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