Method of Improving Pedestrian Safety Proactively with Geographic Information Systems
Example from a College Campus
Source: Transportation Research Record
"A method of combining two information bases with the aid of geographic information systems to identify locations where pedestrian crash problems exist or may exist in the near future is described. The first information base is a set of police crash reports. Locations and attributes obtained from these reports are used to identify clusters of pedestrian crashes in an area so that sites can be evaluated for safety improvements. Geographic analysis of crash types, severity, pedestrian age, and other factors may also be conducted with these data. The second information base is a set of pedestrian and driver perception surveys. Data from this survey are used to identify locations that may have a high potential for crashes even though none or few have been reported recently. Integrating the two information bases may allow transportation planners and engineers to focus on sites with the greatest potential for pedestrian improvements and ultimately prevent more crashes, injuries, and fatalities. The proactive data integration technique developed in this study was applied to pedestrian safety problems on a college campus, aiding the process of planning and implementing various countermeasures related to education, enforcement, and engineering. Note that more than 17 million people (more than 6 percent of the population) in the United States are associated with college campuses. The method can also be applied to bicycle or other special types of crashes in other geographic areas such as cities, commercial zones, and neighborhoods."
