Number Of Pedestrian Crashes Research Articles

‘Safety in Numbers’ for Walkers: Effects of Pedestrian Volume on Per-Pedestrian Crash Rate and Severe Injury Probability

The ‘safety in numbers’ phenomenon is very intriguing to many walking advocates. Some studies have examined the phenomenon for walkers, but they mostly focused on the relationship between pedestrian volume and the likelihood of vehicle–pedestrian crash occurrences. This study evaluated the effects of the ‘safety in numbers’ phenomenon not only on the risk of crash occurrences, but also on the probability of severe or fatal injuries. Pedestrian volume and crash data obtained from the six districts in Seoul Metropolitan City and Jeju Island were jointly analyzed to examine the expected pedestrian crash rate and the probability of severe or fatal injury as a function of pedestrian volume. The analysis confirmed that the expected pedestrian crash rate and the probability of severe or fatal injuries decline as pedestrian volume increases, although the absolute number of crashes and injuries increases. The increase in the number of pedestrian crashes is less than the increase in pedestrian volume. In addition, the probability of severe or fatal injuries tends to diminish with a larger pedestrian volume. These findings can be used as logical evidence to support future policies promoting walking trips, and they suggest that policy measures encouraging walking trips can deliver additional benefits beyond the well-known economic, health, and environmental benefits.

Risk Factors for Older Pedestrian Injuries and Fatalities Among Communities in Massachusetts

The number of pedestrian crashes in the United States has increased by 35 percent from 2008 to 2017. Among all pedestrian fatalities in 2017, 48% were pedestrians aged 50 and older, which suggests a disproportionate threat to older residents’ health and safety. Massachusetts has a large older population and is experiencing increased numbers of older pedestrian crashes. This research identified risk factors and community characteristics contributing to older pedestrian crashes and suggests leveraging the state’s age-friendly efforts to speed the implementation of countermeasures. Based on ten-year statewide crash data (2006-2015) and community indicators from the 2018 Massachusetts Healthy Aging Data Report, this study examined 4,472 crashes across Massachusetts that involved pedestrians age 55 and over. The leading reasons for crashes were driver’s inattention, driver’s failure to yield right of way, and driver’s issues with visibility. Older pedestrians were hit while walking in the road, often in crosswalks at intersections. Many factors were found to contribute to older pedestrian crashes: time of day (rush hour), time of year (winter), and community factors (higher rates of disabilities, higher percentage of racial minority residents, higher number of cultural amenities, and lack of dementia-friendly community efforts. Greater awareness of older pedestrian safety risks is needed. Communities highlighted in this research warrant priority attention from planning, health, aging services, and transportation authorities to improve older pedestrian safety.

Investigation of factors contributing to pedestrian hit-and-run crashes in India

Objectives Hit-and-run crashes account for about 14% of total accidents (MoRTH 2017) in India despite it being a cognizable offense under the Indian motor vehicle act of 1988. Hit-and-run crashes also account for a significant number of pedestrian crashes. A better understanding of these crashes is required to reduce the severity of pedestrian crashes. Recent reports claim that there is an increase in the number of fatal victims concerning pedestrians in 2017 over 2016. The number of pedestrians killed in road accidents has climbed from 15,746 in 2016 to 20,457 in 2017 (29.9% increase). Methods Nine years of pedestrian crash data from the RADMS database (2009–2017) for the state of Tamilnadu were used in this study. This study explores several factors that increase the likelihood of pedestrian hit-and-run crashes, including temporal factors, environmental factors, crash characteristics, and road features. One hundred ten variables under 30 factors were assessed for statistically significant association with hit-and-run crashes. Results and conclusions The results of the present study show that the perpetrator’s tendency to leave the spot of crash increases in the dark unlighted conditions. Increased likelihood of hit-and-run crashes is found during summer, winter season and in urban areas. Among pedestrian characteristics, pedestrians who are intoxicated, pedestrian locations such as footpath, crossing the road and shoulder, pedestrian victims who are injured significantly contribute to hit-and-run crashes. Factors such as day of the week, road category, collision cause, vehicle type, weather conditions, driver alcohol status, pedestrian residence type, and traffic movement were found to be statistically not significant with a 90% confidence interval. We finally discuss a few recommendations based on the results and intervention that can reduce hit-and-run pedestrian fatalities and injuries.

Bayesian approach to model pedestrian crashes at signalized intersections with measurement errors in exposure

This study intended to identify the potential factors contributing to the occurrence of pedestrian crashes at signalized intersections in a densely populated city, based on a comprehensive dataset of 898 pedestrian crashes at 262 signalized intersections during 2010–2012 in Hong Kong. The detailed geometric design, traffic characteristics, signal control, built environment, along with the vehicle and pedestrian volumes were elaborately collected. A Bayesian measurement errors model was introduced as an alternative method to explicitly account for the uncertainties in volume data. To highlight the role played by exposure, models with and without pedestrian volume were estimated and compared. The results indicated that the omission of pedestrian volume in pedestrian crash frequency models would lead to reduced goodness-of-fit, biased parameter estimates, and incorrect inferences. Our empirical analysis demonstrated the existence of moderate uncertainties in pedestrian and vehicle volumes. Six variables were found to have a significant association with the number of pedestrian crashes at signalized intersections. The number of crossing pedestrians, the number of passing vehicles, the presence of curb parking, and the presence of ground-floor shops were positively related with pedestrian crash frequency, whereas the presence of playgrounds near intersections had a negative effect on pedestrian crash occurrences. Specifically, the presence of exclusive pedestrian signals for all crosswalks was found to significantly reduce the risk of pedestrian crashes by 43%. The present study is expected to shed more light on a deeper understanding of the environmental determinants of pedestrian crashes.

Application of partial proportional odds model for analyzing pedestrian crash injury severities in Switzerland

ABSTRACTAccording to the Swiss Microcensus, Switzerland is a place where people choose to walk more than 40% of their daily trip time, resulting in a higher pedestrian crash to total crash ratio when compared to many other developed countries. Furthermore, the high number of old and young pedestrians as well as the large number of pedestrian crashes with higher levels of severity makes the pedestrian crash analysis for Switzerland very important. This study aims to identify the important factors that influence the injury severity levels of pedestrian–vehicle crashes in Switzerland. To address this we employ a partial proportional odds model to analyze pedestrian crash injury severities in Switzerland, based on the 5-year (2008–2012) pedestrian safety data. The study also focuses on a separate analysis for two vulnerable groups of pedestrians (young and old pedestrians) to examine the change in the influence of factors over age. The analysis involves an extensive evaluation based on pedestrian and driver characteristics; main reason for the crash; traffic, temporal, vehicle, roadway geometric and environmental characteristics. The study shows that irrespective of age, dark unlighted areas, sight obstructions, midblock crossings and heavy vehicles adversely affect the injury severity levels of pedestrians.

Random Parameter Model Used to Explain Effects of Built-Environment Characteristics on Pedestrian Crash Frequency

Pedestrian safety has been a major concern for megacities such as New York City. Although pedestrian fatalities show a downward trend, these fatalities constitute a high percentage of overall traffic fatalities in the city. Data from New York City were used to study the factors that influence the frequency of pedestrian crashes. Specifically, a random parameter, negative binomial model was developed for predicting pedestrian crash frequencies at the census tract level. This approach allows the incorporation of unobserved heterogeneity across the spatial zones in the modeling process. The influences of a comprehensive set of variables describing the sociodemographic and built-environment characteristics on pedestrian crashes are reported. Several parameters in the model were found to be random, which indicates their heterogeneous influence on the numbers of pedestrian crashes. Overall, these findings can help frame better policies to improve pedestrian safety.

In-Depth Analysis of Pedestrian Crashes in Riyadh

Objective: Problems facing authorities and researchers of road traffic accidents in most developing countries include lack of data and clarity and accessibility problems with existing data. This resulted in a severe scarcity in information on pedestrian crashes, which, in turn, served as an obstacle facing all efforts to reduce these crashes. This study aims at studying pedestrian crashes with regard to their causes and characteristics in Riyadh, analyzing the bodily distribution of injuries in victims and determining the characteristics of pedestrians and drivers involved in these collisions. Methods: Data on randomly selected road traffic accidents involving pedestrians between July 2005 and June 2008 were collected from five different sources. Data collected included date and location, casualty details, accident sketch, weather conditions, site characteristics, road surface conditions, vehicle characteristics, type of collision, vehicle(s) direction and movement, damage description, and causes as well as details of parties involved such as nationality, age, education level, severity of injury, and others. Results: The number of pedestrian crashes investigated was 460, involving 551 victims over a 3-year period (out of an estimated 1500 crashes). Results showed that the average rate of pedestrian fatalities per accident was as high as 0.32 and that almost two thirds of drivers and slightly less than half of the victims were less than 30 years of age. In contrast to other road traffic accidents (RTAs) in this city, two thirds of pedestrian crashes occurred between 4:00 pm and midnight. Results also revealed that non-Saudis and men were at a significantly greater risk than Saudis and women to be involved in pedestrian crashes. It was also found that two thirds of pedestrians involved in RTAs were struck while crossing the road. Moreover, although 8.7 percent of Riyadh's population lives in the southern and northern regions of the city, pedestrian crashes in these two regions constituted 32.2 percent of all pedestrian crashes. As related to injury type, head, thorax, and spinal injuries formed most of the serious injuries. It was also found that the most often injured body regions were the upper and lower extremities and the head. Conclusions: Practical recommendations are given that researchers, traffic police, medical authorities, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), educational institutions, and municipalities can adopt to lower the risk of pedestrian crashes.

Reduction of Pedestrian Fatalities, Injuries, Conflicts, and Other Surrogate Measures in Miami–Dade, Florida

The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate measures to reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries along high-crash corridors in Miami–Dade County, Florida, by targeting engineering countermeasures toward specific high-crash locations and zones. With pedestrian crash data from 1996 to 2006, eight corridors were identified within the county as having abnormally high numbers of pedestrian crashes. On the basis of crash characteristics, 14 different engineering treatments were implemented to reduce pedestrian crashes along the specific corridors. A before-and-after study was used to compare the sequential implementation of a 3-year large-scale NHTSA project that focused primarily on education and enforcement components followed by a large-scale FHWA engineering countermeasure project that was added to the NHTSA project along specific corridors. Results showed that the NHTSA pedestrian safety project reduced countywide pedestrian crash rates by 13.3% along the targeted corridors, and the FHWA engineering safety project produced a further reduction to 49.5% of the baseline level. These results translate to 50 fewer pedestrian crashes annually along the treated corridors.