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

August 5, 2002

Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. Kurt M. Dietrich, E.I.
Engineering Technician II
Traffic Engineering Division
City of Reno, Public Works Department
P.O. Box 1900
Reno, NV 89505

Dear Mr. Dietrich:

Thank you for your June 25 letter submitting your evaluation report on the approved experimentation (4-136 (Ex)) with a pedestrian signal countdown display in the city of Reno.

We appreciate your submission of the report. However, our review finds that the report is incomplete in that it only includes the "after" data collected for one of the intersections for which experimentation was approved. The last previous correspondence we received from Reno on this experimentation was in February 2000, when a progress report was submitted. That report indicated that the first installation was at South Center Street and East Liberty Street and that no “before” data was collected for that location because the devices were installed ahead of schedule. The progress report indicated that "before" data would be collected at two additional locations prior to installation of the pedestrian countdown displays. Your most recent report only includes the "after" data for the initial installation location and no data at all on any of the subsequent locations. For your experimentation evaluation to be considered complete, it is necessary that you submit a final report that summarizes all of the data you have collected over the full length of your experimentation and presents your final conclusions based on the before and after data. We would appreciate receiving such a report at your earliest convenience.

As a result of experimentation in a variety of jurisdictions and a recommendation from the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) that pedestrian signal countdown displays be made uniform in design and application, we have proposed adding the pedestrian signal countdown display to the MUTCD for optional use, as a part of the Notice of Proposed Amendments to the MUTCD that was published in the Federal Register on May 21, 2002. As such, in accordance with Section 1A.10 of the MUTCD, we have no objection to the city of Reno continuing to operate the pedestrian signal countdown displays until such time as a final ruling is made (anticipated in early 2003,) at which time the city of Reno may be required to modify or remove the displays depending on the details of the final rule.

We look forward to receiving your final report as requested above, and we do appreciate your interest in improving conditions for pedestrians. Meanwhile, if we can be of further assistance, please contact Mr. Scott Wainwright at 202-366-0857.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Ernie Huckaby (for)

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