The Most Vulnerable User: Examining the Role of Income, Race, and the Built Environment on Pedestrian Injuries and Deaths
By Eric Dumbaugh
Pedestrians are far more likely to be killed in a traffic crash in the United States than are residents in other affluent countries, experiencing pedestrian fatality rates (1.9 per 100K) that are twice as high as Canada (0.9) and three times that of the United Kingdom (0.7). This is widely understood to be a product of the design of communities in the United States, which have prioritized automobile travel over the needs of other road users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists.
Movements such as Vision Zero and Safe Systems have emerged in response, calling for the transportation profession to eliminate traffic-related death and injury by centering its activities on the safety needs of “vulnerable users,” or those persons most likely to be injured or killed in a traffic collision. Given the fragility of the human body, this has become synonymous with pedestrians and bicyclists and resulted in a professional rule-of-thumb that pedestrian streetscape improvements, such as sidewalks, street trees, or other “livability” features are broadly beneficial for road safety, regardless of where they are applied.
Nonetheless, this presumes that the environmental risk factors are largely the same for all population segments, regardless of moderating socioeconomic factors such as race and income. But what if environmental risk factors vary for different population segments?
This study examines the environmental risk factors associated with injurious and fatal pedestrian crashes occurring in lower-income and affluent communities in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, Florida. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the risk factors for these populations are not the same. In lower-income areas, pedestrian deaths and injuries are higher in areas with multi-lane arterial streets, higher traffic volumes, concentrations of fast food restaurants and commercial strips. And contrary to conventional wisdom, drug and alcohol use does not appear to be a primary cause. The presence of bars did not prove to be meaningfully related with pedestrian death and injury, and officers suspected pedestrians to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol in only 5% of these cases. Considered as a whole, the majority of these deaths and injuries appear to be the result of sober pedestrians attempting to access household-supporting destinations in environments that are poorly designed to accommodate them. Moreover, even after accounting for income, areas with higher concentrations of Black residents experienced a higher incidence of traffic-related injury and death than predominantly white areas.
Highest Pedestrian Crash Locations: Lower-Income (left) and Affluent (right)
The environmental risk factors were markedly different in affluent environments, however, consisting of elements associated with recreation and nightlife—specifically, bars and clubs, hotels, and traditional, sit-down restaurants. And consistent with the presence of nightlife activities, police suspected the pedestrian to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol in 9% of these crashes, nearly twice the rate of that observed in lower-income areas. The presence of large, multi-lane streets and higher traffic volumes, which are major risk factors for lower-income communities, did not prove to be a risk factor for affluent households. Indeed, these tended to be associated with fewer pedestrian deaths and injuries, suggesting that, if anything, pedestrian crashes are less likely to occur in affluent auto-centric areas. This is almost certainly because, for affluent households, walking is a recreational activity that can be avoided when an environment is regarded as being unpleasant or unsafe.
Considered as a whole, these results suggest that pedestrian crash risk, like much else in U.S. society, is strongly intertwined with broader issues of racial and income inequality. Attempts to address the safety of the transportation system’s most vulnerable users need to move beyond asserting that any pedestrian project constitutes a safety enhancement, and to begin to more meaningfully account for social vulnerabilities associated with race and income.
Article Details
The Most Vulnerable User: Examining the Role of Income, Race, and the Built Environment on Pedestrian Injuries and Deaths
Eric Dumbaugh, Jonathan Stiles, Diana Mitsova, Dibakar Saha
First published June 5th, 2023 Research Article
DOI: 10.1177/03611981231175888
Transportation Research Record
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