Active Transportation Crashes: Exploring Impairment of Active Mode Users in Utah

Abstract

This exploratory study’s goal was to identify factors associated with suspected alcohol/drug impairment among active transportation mode users involved in crashes. Crash and other spatial data were assembled and joined for over 7,000 bicycle and 9,000 pedestrian crashes with motor vehicles that occurred in Utah over a 12-year period (2010–2021). Overall, 56 bicycle crashes (0.8%) and 220 pedestrian crashes (2.4%) involving an impaired non-motorized were identified from crash data. To identify associated factors, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. For both bicycle and pedestrian crashes, impairment was more likely for older adults, on weekends, overnight, and in places with lower intersection density. For bicycle crashes, impairment was more likely in areas with smaller household sizes and with more liquor stores. For pedestrian crashes, impairment was more likely in the dark and in rural areas. While temporal factors are consistent with expectations about alcohol consumption on nights and weekends, locational findings indicate greater suspicion of impairment in places where walking and bicycling are less expected (rural areas and auto-oriented environments).