Abstract
With pedestrian and bicycle safety as the focus, this study investigates the role of urban form, burdened communities (BCs), and demographics at the national level. Urban form can contribute to segregation, limiting access to crucial resources such as safe infrastructure, essential services, and economic opportunities. Leveraging recent data, this research applies six key indicators to identify BCs based on various socioeconomic and environmental factors. The study creates a unique database combining 10 years of pedestrian-bicycle-involved fatal crashes with data for the 71,729 census tracts with burden indicators and census data. The data are analyzed using descriptives and rigorous zero-hurdle negative binomial models, which account for excessive zeros observed in the data. The inference-based analysis results reveal a positive correlation between burden indicators and pedestrian-bicycle-involved fatal crash occurrences, alongside a heightened risk in areas with high-intensity development. Higher Black, American Indian, or Alaska Native populations are associated with more fatal crashes. The study offers novel insights into safety dynamics across different contexts characterized by urban forms, BCs, and demographics. The study underscores the importance of targeted interventions to enhance pedestrian and bicycle safety.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1221-1244 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Journal of Transportation Safety and Security |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2025 |
Funding
We thank the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety (CPBS), a Tier-1 University Transportation Center (UTC) supported by the United States Department of Transportation (Federal Grant Number: 69A3552348336), for its support. We also thank Ms. Zeinab Bayati, who helped edit the manuscript.
Keywords
- bicycle crashes
- fatal crashes
- pedestrian crashes
- urban form