Identifying High Risk Built Environments for Severe Bicycling Injuries

This study was aimed at filling part of the knowledge gap on bicycling safety in the built environment by addressing two questions. First, are built environment features and bicyclist injury severity correlated, and if so, what built environment factors most significantly relate to severe bicycling injuries? Second, do the identified statistical associations vary substantially among cities with different levels of bicycling and different built environments? The cities of Miami, Seattle, and Minneapolis, which differ in built environments, bicycle mode share, and bicyclist fatality rate, were selected as representative cases for the analysis. The generalized ordered logit (GOL) model was employed to examine the relationship between built environment features and bicyclist injury severity. Bicyclist injury severity was coded into four injury types: no injury (NI), possible injury (PI), evident injury (EI), and severe injury and fatality (SIF). The findings from the three-cities-pooled data included the following: (1) higher percentages of residential land and green space, commercial land, and office or mixed-use land were correlated with lower probabilities of EI and SIF; (2) land-use mixture was negatively correlated with EI and SIF; (3) steep slopes were positively associated with bicyclist injury severity; (4) in areas with more transit routes, bicyclist injury was less likely to be severe; (5) a higher speed limit was more likely to result in SIF; and (6) wearing a helmet was negatively associated with SIF, but positively related to PI and EI. GOL models for individual cities showed broad consistency with the pooled GOL model in the estimated relationship between built environment features and bicyclist injury severity.

• Record URL:
  • http://hdl.handle.net/1773/43514
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/64802
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Washington, Seattle

  Department of Urban Design and Planning, Box 355740
  Seattle, WA  United States  98195-5740

  Puget Sound Regional Council

  Transportation Planning, 1011 Western Avenue, Suite 500
  Seattle, WA  United States  98104-1035

  Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium

  University of Washington
  More Hall Room 112
  Seattle, WA  United States  98195-2700

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Shen, Qing
  • Chen, Peng
  • 0000-0002-3201-7339
• Publication Date: 2017-1-15

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 69p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycling; Built environment; Case studies; Injury severity; Safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Ordered logits
• Geographic Terms: Miami (Florida); Minneapolis (Minnesota); Seattle (Washington)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01708092
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 2015-S-UW-92
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC40
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Jun 19 2019 4:08PM