Urban Intersections and the Analysis of Pedestrian Injuries with Built-Environment and Equity Considerations

Abstract

In the United States, pedestrian traffic injuries have increased by 75% over the last 13 years. In Oregon, pedestrian deaths have increased by more than 100% during the same period. This increase necessitates a better understanding of the contributing factors to pedestrian injury frequency. This work addresses this need by analyzing the contributing factors to pedestrian injury frequency by severity (all injuries versus serious injuries) at urban intersections in Oregon. This work further advances the state of the practice by including measures of social equity and potential exposure surrogates owing to the unavailability of pedestrian exposure data. Two models were developed, one for all pedestrian injuries and one for serious pedestrian injuries. The results indicated that equity measures are key contributing factors to pedestrian injury frequency for both injury categories. Additional commonalities included built-environment characteristics and speed limits. The results further suggest that potential surrogates for pedestrian exposure could be viable proxies if pedestrian exposure data are unavailable. Regardless of injury type, this work provides evidence that pedestrian treatment strategies should be focused in low-income areas and on higher classification roadways where pedestrian activity is present.