Accidents and Accessibility: Measuring Influences of Demographic and Land Use Variables in Honolulu, Hawaii

The current study examined the interplay between demographic, land use, and roadway accessibility variables and types of accidents in Honolulu, Hawaii. A uniform 0.1-mi2 grid was used as the basis for analysis and was combined with binomial logistic regression. Eight models were constructed to consider the relationship between total accidents, injury, fatality, pedestrian, bicycle, moped, motorcycle, and motor vehicle to motor vehicle crashes as a function of population, land use, and accessibility measures such as road length, bus stops, length of bus route, number of intersections, and dead ends. The results indicate that demographic variables such as job count and number of people living below the poverty level are significantly associated with injury crashes and pedestrian and bike crashes. Business and commercial areas are strongly associated with increased total as well as injury and fatal crashes. Accessibility measures such as the number of bus stops and the number of intersections are associated with increases in all types of accidents. The implications for safety research and other programs are summarized.