With the progressive ageing of the population, the study of the relations between road safety and elderly users is becoming increasingly relevant. Although the decline of pedestrian skills in the elderly has been widely studied in the literature, few studies have been devoted to the contributing built environmental factors of the elderly pedestrian collisions, such as the sidewalk density, the presence of traffic lights, or even some indicator related to land use or the socioeconomic features of the urban fabric. This paper contributes to the limited literature on elderly pedestrian safety by applying a negative binomial regression to a set of built environmental variables to study the occurrence of accidents involving elderly and younger (non-elderly) pedestrians in Madrid (Spain) between 2006 and 2018. The model considers a selection of built environmental factors per city district, linked to land use, infrastructure, and socioeconomic indicators. Results have highlighted that the elderly pedestrian collisions could be avoided with the existence of a wider sidewalk in the district and a greater traffic lights density. Unlike younger pedestrian accidents, these accidents are much more favored in ageing districts with higher traffic flows.
1 March 2019 in Research in Transportation Business & Management
Walking benefits older pedestrians but exposes them to traffic crashes. With an aging population, designing age-friendly cities is crucial, yet research on older pedestrian safety at a micro-level is limited. This study aims to reduce older pedestrian–vehicle collisions and create more livable environments through infrastructure policies derived from statistical data analysis. Special attention is focused on collecting a holistic set of infrastructure variables to reflect most of the street built environment elements, which helps policymakers implement short-term safety measures. Using Bayesian Poisson regression, this study analyzes factors contributing to the occurrence of crashes involving older and non-older pedestrians on road segments in Madrid, Spain. The results indicate that different factors affect the occurrence of crashes for all pedestrians versus older pedestrians specifically. Traffic crashes involving all pedestrians are affected by leisure points of interest, bus stops, and crosswalk density. Older pedestrian traffic crashes are influenced by population density, the presence of trees and trash containers, and contour complexity. Proposed measures include relocating trees and trash containers, modifying bus stops, and adding crosswalks and traffic lights. This paper also shows that these countermeasures, aimed at creating age-friendly streets for older pedestrians, are not expected to worsen the road safety of other pedestrians.
In the last decades, car sharing has been a tool for city planners to reduce private car traffic and pollution in big urban areas. The emergence of the ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies), together with the development of the collaborative economy, has allowed for the birth of the new Free-Floating Carsharing (FFCS): A more flexible type of carsharing, in which electric cars can be used. Little research has been devoted using real FFCS flows data, to the FFCS impacts on user behavior and even on the public transport system thus far. Furthermore, in big metropolitan areas, central rail stations should promote modal interchanges, including new modes of electric FFCS systems. The aim of this paper is to design a web-based platform to collect and analyze FFCS demand on the surrounding areas of rail stations and makes a proposal to provide these systems with electrical recharging energy obtained from the regenerative braking of high-speed trains. This case study includes Atocha and Chamartín Central Stations in Madrid (Spain). Scientific evidence shows a high demand of FFCS cars at central rail stations and a trip profile with a short time duration linked to the closest districts of rail stations.