Factors Contributing to Pedestrian and Bicycle Crashes on Rural Highways
Source: Highway Safety Information System (HSIS)
Approximately 25 percent of nationwide pedestrian and bicycle fatal and injury accidents occur on rural highways. In contrast to urban highways, rural highways have certain characteristics that can be more hazardous to pedestrians and bicyclists, such as higher average vehicle speeds and a lack of sidewalk provisions. Limited research has been conducted on rural highways, where crash types have been defined with more detailed coding than exists on standard police forms and where crash data could be linked with roadway characteristics and traffic counts.
The goals of this study were to examine the differences between pedestrian and bicycle crashes in urban and rural settings in North Carolina and to identify problem areas (specific crash types and crash locations) on rural highways that are of high priority for safety treatment and treatment development.
