Income and Racial Disparity and the Role of the Built Environment in Pedestrian Injuries

Abstract

This study examined the impacts of built environments on pedestrian-vehicle crashes with different levels of severity and the income and racial disparities related to different crash injuries in Austin, Texas. Arterial roads and commercial areas were associated with more injurious crashes. The presence of schools had a positive association with both injurious and no-injury crashes but only in areas with high percentages of nonwhites and poverty. This implies the importance of planning that separates pedestrians from vehicles in mixed-traffic commercial environments. Schools in areas with high percentages of minorities and poverty should be given priority for improvements of pedestrian safety.

Urban Design Praxis: A Responsibility for Justice

“…In these examples, Blackness is viewed not only as a signifier and experience of racialized abjection and vulnerability but, more importantly, Blackness transcends race and identities attached to people of African descent and becomes a liberating practice of freedom available to those who suffer under the violent logics of whiteness. In contrast to planning's historical focus on racial disparities and discrimination associated with land use and zoning, housing and economic development, health and the environment (Thomas and Ritzdorf 1997;Raja, Ma, and Yadav 2008;Allen 2011;Yu, Zhu, and Lee 2018;Solis 2020), the scholarship on race and space not only highlights critical analyses of racialized spaces but also identifies sites of resistance and liberation. I draw on this brief overview of scholarship on race and space to conclude with concepts for an "antiracist praxis" (Brand and Miller 2020) for urban design.…”

The Most Vulnerable User: Examining the Role of Income, Race, and the Built Environment on Pedestrian Injuries and Deaths

“…In particular, wider, faster roads surrounded by retail land uses have been found to be associated with increased crash risk (12)(13)(14). It has also been established that crashes are more likely to occur in lower-income environments than more affluent ones (15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Yet, surprisingly, there has been no examination pertaining to whether the environmental risk factors that lead to increased crash incidence in lower-income areas differ from those of more affluent ones.…”

The effects of pedestrian and bicycle exposure on crash risk in Minneapolis

“…In systemic approaches, the choice of risk factors is critical to the validity of study outcomes. When specifying SPFs, previous studies often have considered four types of risk factors, including exposure to risk variables (Schneider et al, 2010;Thomas et al, 2017), built environment variables (Dumbaugh & Li, 2011;Guerra et al, 2019), traffic facility characteristics (Dumbaugh & Li, 2011;Zangenehpour et al, 2016), and socio-demographic characteristics (Loukaitou-Sideris et al, 2007;Yu et al, 2018). Among these factors, exposure to risk is theoretically important.…”

“…Low-income people and minority groups use non-motorized modes of transportation frequently (Renne & Bennett, 2014). Accordingly, low-income and minority-concentrated neighborhoods have more pedestrian and bicycle activities (Cottrill & Thakuriah, 2010;Yu et al, 2018) and a higher proportion of crashes than other neighborhoods (Loukaitou-Sideris et al, 2007;Siddiqui et al, 2014). The disproportionate safety burden of these disadvantaged neighborhoods raises important equity issues and concerns (Loukaitou-Sideris et al, 2007;Yu et al, 2018).…”

“…Accordingly, low-income and minority-concentrated neighborhoods have more pedestrian and bicycle activities (Cottrill & Thakuriah, 2010;Yu et al, 2018) and a higher proportion of crashes than other neighborhoods (Loukaitou-Sideris et al, 2007;Siddiqui et al, 2014). The disproportionate safety burden of these disadvantaged neighborhoods raises important equity issues and concerns (Loukaitou-Sideris et al, 2007;Yu et al, 2018). Furthermore, omitting pedestrian and bicycle exposure variables or using poor proxies will systematically understate the crash risk of the facilities located in these neighborhoods.…”