Application of demographic analysis to pedestrian safety : final report.

PDFTech ReportBDV25-977-30Pedestrian safetyLow income groupsDemographicsLand useCountermeasuresPedestrian educationUnited StatesFloridaUniversity of South Florida. Center for Urban Transportation ResearchLin, Pei-SungKourtellis, AchilleasZhang, YuGuo, RuiBialkowska-Jelinska, ElzbietaUniversity of South Florida. Center for Urban Transportation ResearchFlorida. Dept. of TransportationUS Transportation CollectionIn recent years, many departments of transportation in the US have invested additional resources to enhancepedestrian safety. However, there is still a need to effectively and systematically address the pedestrian experiencein low-income areas. A Governing analysis of pedestrian crashes found that pedestrians are fatally injured atdisproportionately higher rates in the nation\ue2\u20ac\u2122s poorer neighborhoods, and in metro areas, low-income tracts recordpedestrian fatality rates approximately twice those of more affluent neighborhoods. Low-income areas often aresectioned by high volume/high speed arterials, which compounds the problem. This research developed ademographics-based methodology that identifies the quantitative relationships between dependent variables such aspedestrian crashes and severe injury crashes and independent variables including demographic and social factors,road environmental factors, neighborhood land use attributes, and individual characteristics in low-income areas.For demographic and social factors, major influential variables include proportions of older adults, commuters usingpublic transit or biking, people with a low education level, and zero-car ownership. For road environmental factors,major influential variables include number of traffic signals per census block group, number of bus stops per mile,and proportion of higher-speed roads in a census block group. For neighborhood land use attributes, majorinfluential variables include densities of discount stores, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants. Additionally,dark\ue2\u20ac\u201cnot lighted condition is the most influential variable for severe injury in pedestrian crashes. The number ofimpaired pedestrians and aggressive drivers also greatly increases the probability of severe injury. Based on thedemographics-based analysis and results, this study makes specific recommendations for both engineeringcountermeasures and pedestrian safety education/outreach plans that resonate with a given area\ue2\u20ac\u2122s demographics toeffectively improve pedestrian safety in low-income areas