Urban sprawl as a risk factor in motor vehicle crashes

Ewing, Reid; Hamidi, Shima; Grace, James B.

doi:10.1177/0042098014562331

Cited by 89 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…This index places urban sprawl at one end of a continuous scale and compact development at the other [59]. The original index, developed in 2002, was updated to 2010 in a recent study [58,60,61]. The updated index incorporates more measures of the built environment than the original index did, and captures four distinct dimensions of sprawl: development density; land use mix; population and employment centering; and street accessibility, which represents the relative connectivity of the street network at the county level.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between Urban Sprawl and Life Expectancy in the United States

Hamidi

Ewing

Tatalovich

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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In recent years, the United States has had a relatively poor performance with respect to life expectancy compared to the other developed nations. Urban sprawl is one of the potential causes of the high rate of mortality in the United States. This study investigated cross-sectional associations between sprawl and life expectancy for metropolitan counties in the United States in 2010. In this study, the measure of life expectancy in 2010 came from a recently released dataset of life expectancies by county. This study modeled average life expectancy with a structural equation model that included five mediators: annual vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per household, average body mass index, crime rate, and air quality index as mediators of sprawl, as well as percentage of smokers as a mediator of socioeconomic status. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, this study found that life expectancy was significantly higher in compact counties than in sprawling counties. Compactness affects mortality directly, but the causal mechanism is unclear. For example, it may be that sprawling areas have higher traffic speeds and longer emergency response times, lower quality and less accessible health care facilities, or less availability of healthy foods. Compactness affects mortality indirectly through vehicle miles traveled, which is a contributor to traffic fatalities, and through body mass index, which is a contributor to many chronic diseases. This study identified significant direct and indirect associations between urban sprawl and life expectancy. These findings support further research and practice aimed at identifying and implementing changes to urban planning designed to support health and healthy behaviors.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between Urban Sprawl and Life Expectancy in the United States

Hamidi

Ewing

Tatalovich

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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“…In addition to the static location of facilities, safety concerns related to infrastructure and the wider built environment can act as a barrier to participation in cycling (Saelens, Sallis, & Frank, 2003) as well as having a role to play in driver safety (Ewing & Dumbaugh, 2009;Ewing, Hamidi, & Grace, 2014) , although we are not aware of any evidence as to whether road design acts as a deterrent to driving. Furthermore, infrastructure may have differential benefits or adverse impacts on different groups, leading to inequality in access and highlighting a need for inclusive design of the built environment.…”

Section: Safety and Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bicycle and Car Share Schemes as Inclusive Modes of Travel? A Socio-Spatial Analysis in Glasgow, UK

Clark

Curl

2016

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Public bicycle and car sharing schemes have proliferated in recent years and are increasingly part of the urban transport landscape. Shared transport options have the potential to support social inclusion by improving accessibility: these initiatives could remove some of the barriers to car ownership or bicycle usage such as upfront costs, maintenance and storage. However, the existing evidence base indicates that, in reality, users are most likely to be white, male and middle class. This paper argues that there is a need to consider the social inclusivity of sharing schemes and to develop appropriate evaluation frameworks accordingly. We therefore open by considering ways in which shared transport schemes might be inclusive or not, using a framework developed from accessibility planning. In the second part of the paper, we use the case study of Glasgow in Scotland to undertake a spatial equity analysis of such schemes. We examine how well they serve different population groups across the city, using the locations of bicycle stations and car club parking spaces in Glasgow, comparing and contrasting bike and car. An apparent failure to deliver benefits across the demographic spectrum raises important questions about the socially inclusive nature of public investment in similar schemes.

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“…The overall index has also been widely used in the literature (Congdon, 2016;Ewing et al, 2016a;Ewing et al, 2016b;Nelson et al, 2014;Nelson et al, 2015a;Nelson et al, 2015b;Lee, 2015;Sanderford et al, 2015;Sanderford et al, 2016). Congestion data come from the TTI's Urban Mobility Scorecard Annual Report database.…”

Section: Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Compact Development Increase or Reduce Traffic Congestion?

Ewing¹,

Tian²,

Lyons³

et al. 2017

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From years of research, we know that compact development that is dense, diverse, well-designed, etc. produces fewer vehicle miles traveled (VMT) than sprawling development. But compact development also concentrates origins and destinations. No one has yet determined, using credible urban form metrics and credible congestion data, the net effect of these countervailing forces on area-wide congestion. Using compactness/sprawl metrics developed for the National Institutes of Health, and congestion data from the Texas Transportation Institute's (TTI's) Urban Mobility Scorecard Annual Report database, this study seeks to determine which opposing point of view of sprawl and congestion is correct. It does so by (1) measuring compactness, congestion and control variables using the best national data available for U.S. urbanized areas and (2) relating these variables to one another using multivariate methods to determine whether compactness is positively or negatively related to congestion. Our model (and earlier studies by the same authors) suggest that an increase in compactness reduces the amount of driving people do, but also concentrates the driving in smaller areas. The former effect is slightly larger than the latter. The relationship between compactness and congestion falls short of statistical significance at the conventional 0.05 level. This analysis does not support the idea that sprawl acts as a "traffic safety valve," as some have claimed. However, it also does not support the reverse idea that compact development offers a one-stop solution to congestion, as others have claimed. Developing in a more compact manner may help at the margin, but the greatest reduction in congestion appears to be achievable through expansion of surface streets and higher highway user fees.17.

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Urban sprawl as a risk factor in motor vehicle crashes

Cited by 89 publications

References 42 publications

Associations between Urban Sprawl and Life Expectancy in the United States

Associations between Urban Sprawl and Life Expectancy in the United States

Bicycle and Car Share Schemes as Inclusive Modes of Travel? A Socio-Spatial Analysis in Glasgow, UK

Does Compact Development Increase or Reduce Traffic Congestion?

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