Effects of Roadway and Built Environment Characteristics on Pedestrian Fatality Risk: A National Assessment at the Neighborhood Scale

Characteristics of the transportation system and built environment contribute to pedestrian fatality risks, including vehicular traffic and land-use characteristics associated with higher pedestrian activity. The authors combined data from FHWA, NHTSA, EPA, and the Census Bureau and performed regression modeling to explore associations between transportation system and built environment characteristics and pedestrian fatalities at Census tract scale across the contiguous United States. In urban tracts, they found an especially strong association between traffic on non-access-controlled principal arterial roadways and pedestrian fatalities (0.27 additional annual pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 persons per 1,000 VMT/mi2 increase in traffic density); traffic on other facility types have significant, but weaker, associations. The authors also found strong associations between employment density in transportation and warehousing, retail, and food and accommodation services sectors and pedestrian fatalities. In rural tracts, they found associations between traffic density on most facility types and employment density in retail and food and accommodation services sectors. Finally, they compared their model to the High Injury Network in Los Angeles, CA. Nearly half (45%) of observed fatalities were identified by both methods, while some fatalities were identified by only one (26% by their model and 18% by the High Injury Network). This work shows that traffic on certain roadway facility types and employment in certain sectors have especially strong associations with pedestrian fatality risk. More broadly, the authors illustrate how leveraging cross-disciplinary data in novel ways can support prospective, risk-based assessments of pedestrian fatality risks and support integrated and systemic approaches to transportation safety.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB20 Standing Committee on Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation.
• Authors:
  • Mansfield, Theodore J
  • Peck, Dana
  • Morgan, Daniel
  • Mccann, Barbara
  • Teicher, Paul
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 10p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Built environment; Crash risk forecasting; Fatalities; Highway design; Land use; Pedestrian safety
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01664985
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05093
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 30 2018 4:30PM