KEY TAKEAWAY:
Pedestrian fatalities are disproportionately higher in neighborhoods with lower incomes.
RESULTS:
- In metro areas, low-income tracts had pedestrian fatality rates approximately double those of more affluent neighborhoods (10.4 versus 5 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 population).
- Metro-area tracts below the national poverty rate of 15% had averaged 5.3 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents; this increased to 12.1 deaths per 100,000 for neighborhoods where a quarter or more of the population live in poverty.
- The researchers suggest higher percentages of walking or limited pedestrian infrastructure as reasons for higher pedestrian collisions in lower-income neighborhoods.
METHODS:
- This report combined pedestrians’ fatalities and collision locations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System with census tract economic and demographic estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau across the country between 2008 and 2012.
Maciag, M. (2014). America’s Poor Neighborhoods Plagued by Pedestrian Deaths: A Governing Research Report. Washington, D.C.
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