Comparative Analysis of Fatal Pedestrian Crashes between Kansas and USA
- 1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lamar University, Beaumont, USA
Abstract
Due to the increasing trend of population growth and urbanization, pedestrians form one of the largest single road user groups. However, they are the most neglected group among all road users. Pedestrian safety is now a growing concern in the USA. Identifying the factors associated with fatal pedestrian crashes plays a key role in developing efficient and effective strategies to enhance pedestrian safety. This study addresses safety issues by identifying contributory factors associated with fatal pedestrian crashes in Kansas and the USA. For Kansas, the study uses KARS (Kansas Accident Reporting System) database while for the USA FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) database ha s been used. Different variables considered in this study are human variables (age, and gender), environmental variables (atmospheric condition and light condition), time (time of day, day of week, and crash month), location (intersection vs . mid-block), and roadway variables (speed limit). Different factors that are found to have an association with fatal pedestrian crashes are male pedestrians, older pedestrians, weekend, off peak hours, winter months, dark hours, non-intersection, clear atmospheric conditions, higher speed limit. The findings from Kansas have been compared with that from the USA. This study helps to implement potential countermeasures by identifying the factors that have an association with fatal pedestrian crashes.
- Federal Highway Administration, US Department of Transportation (2005) Traveler Opinion and Perception (TOP) Survey.
- Pucher, J. and Dijkstra, L. (2000) Making Walking and Cycling Safer: Lessons from Europe. Transportation Quarterly, 54, 25-50.
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) (2010) Traffic Safety Facts 2010. US Department of Transportation, Washington DC.
- Spainhour, L.K., Wootton, I.A., Sobanjo, J.O. and Brady, P.A. (2006) Causative Factors and Trends in Florida Pedestrian Crashes. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1982, 90-98. https://doi.org/10.3141/1982-13
- Siddiqui, N.A., Chu, X. and Guttenplan, M. (2006) Crossing Locations, Light Conditions, and Pedestrian Injury Severity. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1982, 141-149. https://doi.org/10.3141/1982-19
- Carter, D.L. and Council, F.M. (2007) Factors Contributing to Pedestrian and Bicycle Crashes on Rural Highways. In: 86th Annual Meeting of TRB, National Research Council, Washington DC.
- Corben, B. and D’Elia, A. (2007) Estimating Pedestrian Fatal Crash Risk. Publication of the Monash University Accident Research Centre.
- Kansas Department of Transportation (2010) Kansas Accident Reporting System (KARS) Database.
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, US Department of Transportation (2011) Fatality Accident Report System. https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars
- Goswami, A. and Sonowal, R. (2009) A Statistical Analysis of Road Traffic Accidents in Dibrugarh City, Assam, India. Division of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh.
- Navidi, W. (2011) Statistics for Engineers and Scientist. McGraw-Hill, New York.
- Pucher, J. and Renne, J.L. (2003) Socioeconomics of Urban Travel: Evidence from the 2001 NHTS. Transportation Quarterly, 57, 49-78.
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Report (2018) Toolbox of Pedestrian Countermeasures and Their Potential Effectiveness.