Exploring the Role of Arterial Roads’ Characteristics on Pedestrian and Cyclist Crashes

Over the last decade, over 80% of the increase in pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities occurred on arterial roads. However, there have been limited studies on the built environment's impact on pedestrian and cyclist safety on arterial roads. While the previous research emphasizes the need for additional understanding of the role of arterial infrastructure on safety, they acknowledge the importance of including data such as pedestrian and bicyclist exposure to better understand how this road feature affects vulnerable users’ safety. Hence, this study aims to understand the traffic and built environment-related variables that underlie the occurrence of crashes on arterial roads in the mid-region of New Mexico by answering the following research questions: (1) whether high-speed, high-access roads are more likely to experience crashes than roads with better access management and/or slower speeds. The findings from this inquiry will enlighten the subsequent questions: (2) Do more driveways per mile correlate to more non-motorized injury crashes per mile? (3) What other factors related to the arterial built environment and demographic spatially correlate with a higher likelihood of pedestrian and bicycle crashes? As a methodology, the research team plans to use a combination of spatial analysis and econometric modeling to answer the research question presented previously. The findings from this project are timely and relevant, given the apparent lack of prior research on the safety performance of arterial roads considering vulnerable road users' perspective. By examining safety trends in New Mexico, researchers and policymakers can gain valuable insights into the specific factors contributing to road safety outcomes in different geographic areas.

• Record URL:
  www.pedbikesafety.org/23unm05

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $106452
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348336

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety

  University of New Mexico
  Albuquerque, NM  United States  87131
• Project Managers:

  Melendrez, Carman

• Performing Organizations:

  University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

  Department of Civil Engineering
  Albuquerque, NM  United States  87131-0001
• Principal Investigators:

  Losada-Rojas, Lisa

• Start Date: 20230601
• Expected Completion Date: 20240531
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Bicycle crashes; Built environment; Crash causes; Crash characteristics; Driveways; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Traffic safety
• Geographic Terms: New Mexico
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01890158
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348336
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Aug 16 2023 12:08PM