Measuring the relative risk of pedestrian accidents

The present paper describes research which was conducted to develop a methodology for measuring the relative risk of pedestrian accidents. Accident and exposure data were analyzed separately and then in combination to produce relative risks. The accident information (N = 472) extracted from police accident report forms revealed that dart-out and intersection dash accidents were the most frequent types of accidents with children more involved in the former and adults more involved in the latter. The exposure survey (N = 956) of people aged three years and over indicated that adolescents (13-17) had the highest level of pedestrian activity in terms of number of trips, distance, duration and number of street crossings. The elderly (65 +) and children 8-12 had the lowest levels of activity. Qualitative analysis of pedestrian activity revealed that children (3-12) made more trips during daylight hours, were more often accompanied by others on suburban side streets and crossed streets more often at uncontrolled locations than adults. Examination of relative risk ratios revealed that children (3-12) and the elderly had the highest levels of accident risk but only when distance travelled, duration and number of streets crossed were used as the exposure index. The results demonstrated that exposure data is critical in defining target groups for pedestrian safety programs.