Abstract
Walking is a sustainable mode of transport which has well established health and environmental benefits. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of pedestrians lose their lives each year over the world due to involvement in road traffic crashes, and mid-blocks witness a significant portion of pedestrian fatalities. This study examined the direct and indirect effects of various contributing factors on the pedestrian injury severity in vehicle–pedestrian crashes at mid-blocks. Data of vehicle–pedestrian crashes during 2002–2009 were extracted from the NASS-GES, with pre-crash behaviors and injury severity included. The SEM path analysis method was applied to uncover the inter-relationships between the pedestrian injury severity and various explanatory variables. Both the direct and indirect effects of these explanatory variables on the pedestrian injury severity were calculated based on the marginal effects in the multinomial and ordered logit models. The results indicate some variables including number of road lanes and the age of pedestrian have indirect impacts on the injury severity through influencing the pre-crash behaviors. Although most indirect effects are relatively small compared with the direct effects, the results in this study still provide some valuable information to improve the overall understanding of pedestrian injury severity at mid-blocks.
Highlights
Walking is a sustainable mode of transport which benefits public health and contributes to reducing global warming [1,2]
It should be noted that some statistically insignificant variables are contained in the models, either because they are part of a type of subcategory or there is a need to include them with the aim of analyzing the inter-relationships
The indirect effects are relatively small compared with the direct effects for most of the explanatory variables, the path analysis method does provide valuable help to understand the inter-relationship between these explanatory variables and the injury severity
Summary
Walking is a sustainable mode of transport which benefits public health and contributes to reducing global warming [1,2]. To reduce gas emissions and improve public health, walking trips are encouraged by many governments around the world in recent years [3]. The safety issue for pedestrians is the most critical concern which needs to be addressed when promoting walking. As the most vulnerable road users, pedestrians are exposed to a higher risk of injury and fatality in traffic crashes, which results in hundreds of thousands of pedestrian fatalities each year over the world [3]. 6283 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in 2018, accounting for 17% of all traffic fatalities [4]
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