Spatial variation in road pedestrian casualties: The role of urban scale, density and land-use mix

This paper examines the role of urban scale, density and land-use mix on the incidence of road pedestrian casualties. It develops a spatial model at a disaggregate level that attempts to understand how the nature of the urban environment, with its associated traffic generation characteristics, affects the incidence of road pedestrian casualties. The results show that the characteristics of the local environment have a powerful influence on pedestrian casualties. The incidence of pedestrian casualties and KSIs is higher in residential than in economic zones and a quadratic relationship is found between urban density and pedestrian casualties with incidents diminishing for the most extremely dense wards. Distinguishing broad land-use effects, the paper explores the ways in which population and employment density influence pedestrian casualties.