Updated Analysis of Pedestrian and Pedalcyclist Crashes With Hybrid Vehicles

This report updates earlier National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research that compared pedestrian and pedalcyclist crash involvement rates for hybrid and electric (HE) vehicles to rates for internal combustion engines (ICE) vehicles in 16 States. In the earlier research in 2009, the pedestrian crash odds ratios (OR) were based on only 77 pedestrian crashes of five Honda and Toyota HE vehicle models at all speeds in all types of driving maneuvers (OR=1.40). A follow-on study in 2011 using case-control methodology had the same five HE vehicles involved in 186 pedestrian crashes (OR=1.35), and the pedestrian crashes increased to 244 when all HE models were included (OR=1.22). This current report updates those earlier efforts with data from the same 16 States, some with data now available up to 2011, in which the sample size of HE vehicles in all crashes is increased to 68,950 and resulting in 420 pedestrian crashes for all HE vehicle models. Using this larger sample size for analysis results in the pedestrian crash odds ratio of 1.20 for HE versus ICE when all vehicles models and speeds/maneuvers are included. In addition to this result, if HE versions of Honda models are re-categorized as ICE (since their engines keep running during low-speed maneuvers), then the pedestrian crash odds ratio is slightly modified to 1.21. Furthermore, if additional risk factors such as city size, vehicle maneuvers, and vehicle age are considered simultaneously, the HE/ICE pedestrian crash odds ratio tends to decrease slightly (from 1.20 to 1.17 approximately). The pedestrian odds ratio would be higher if the analyses are limited to low-speed maneuvers only (OR=1.52). In this report similar analyses are also performed using pedalcyclist crash data, and hybrid vehicles had approximately 50 percent higher likelihood of pedalcyclist crashes than ICE vehicles.

• Record URL:
  https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812371
• 
• Authors:
  • Wu, Jingshu
• Publication Date: 2017-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 10p
• Serial:
  • Traffic Safety Facts - Research Note
  • Publisher: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle crashes; Crash characteristics; Crash rates; Electric vehicles; Hybrid vehicles; Internal combustion engines; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; States; Trend (Statistics)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01630010
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT HS 812 371
• Files: HSL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Mar 27 2017 9:29AM