Motor traffic on urban minor and major roads: impacts on pedestrian and cyclist injuries

Rachel Aldred

doi:10.1680/jmuen.16.00068

Abstract

This paper compares per-mile risks posed by motor traffic to pedestrians and cyclists on urban major and minor roads. Carrying out new analysis of police injury data from 2005 to 2015, this study finds that per billion vehicle miles, motor vehicles on minor roads create more pedestrian casualties than motor vehicles on major roads. Specifically, for killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties the rate per billion motor vehicle miles is 17% higher on minor roads (47 against 40 KSIs per billion vehicle miles), while for slight injuries it is 66% higher (188 against 123 slight injuries per billion vehicle miles). Examining the costs of injuries sustained, these are 7·4% higher for pedestrians per motor vehicle mile travelled on urban minor roads, compared with major roads. For cyclists, injuries per mile driven are similar on major and minor roads. These results suggest that re-routing motor traffic to major roads in urban areas may reduce pedestrian casualties. Cyclist safety on major roads should be improved to avoid unintended negative consequences and ensure positive outcomes for cycling.

Highlights

There is an extensive literature on pedestrian road injuries, covering a variety of behavioural and infrastructural risk factors, and potential solutions
The analysis examines whether motor vehicles travelling on minor streets pose more, or less, risk to vulnerable users than motor vehicles travelling on major roads
Between 2005 and 2015, in urban areas, 547 billion vehicle miles were travelled on A roads and 719 billion vehicle miles on urban minor roads

Summary

Introduction

There is an extensive literature on pedestrian road injuries, covering a variety of behavioural and infrastructural risk factors, and potential solutions. Two crucial determinants of pedestrian road injury risk are the volume and the speed of the motor traffic with which pedestrians interact (Elvik, 2013; Elvik and Bjørnskau, 2017). Stoker et al (2015) comment that roadway treatment has been shown to be the single most consequential intervention in reducing pedestrian injury and fatality rates. Such treatments might include, for instance, providing separated footways for pedestrians, using traffic calming to deter motorists from certain routes and/or slow them down, and protecting pedestrians where they must cross motor vehicle streams

Methods

Results

Conclusion