Motor-vehicle collisions involving child pedestrians at intersection and mid-block locations.

We study motor-vehicle collisions involving child pedestrians walking to school in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to understand and contrast collision risks at mid-block and intersection locations. We use a matched case-control study design and apply it to intersection and mid-block locations instead of people. Cases are intersections/mid-blocks where collisions occurred and controls are locations where collisions did not occur. We match cases to controls on geography, socio-economic status and year. We use conditional logistic regression to predict the log-odds of collision risk at intersections and mid-blocks as a function of various environmental measures while controlling for volume of child pedestrian activity. Our results suggest that child pedestrian injuries at intersections are associated with intersection control type, traffic volume, and land use characteristics. In contrast, mid-block child pedestrian collisions are not associated with small scale environmental features. The results of this study suggest that some factors associated with the risk of collision differ across location types. These findings may be useful in the planning of safer walking journeys to school.

Mapping commuter cycling risk in urban areas.

Cycling is becoming an increasingly important transportation option for commuters. Cycling offers exercise opportunities and reduces the burden of motor vehicle travel on society. Mapping the risk of collision between cyclists and motor vehicles in urban areas is important to understanding safe cyclist route opportunities, making informed transportation planning decisions, and exploring patterns of injury epidemiology. To date, many geographic analyses and representations of cyclist risk have not taken the concept of exposure into account. Instead, risk is either expressed as a rate per capita, or as a count of events. Using data associated with the City of Hamilton, Canada, we illustrate a method for mapping commuter cyclist collision risk per distance travelled. This measure can be used to more realistically represent the underlying geography of cycling risk, and provide more geographically and empirically meaningful information to those interested in understanding how cycling safety varies over space.