Death on the Crosswalk: A Study of Pedestrian-Automobile Collisions in Los Angeles

This research explores the spatial distribution of pedestrian-automobile collisions in Los Angeles and analyzes the social and physical factors that affect the risk of getting involved in such accidents. More specifically, this study investigates the influence of socio-demographic, land use, density, and traffic characteristics on pedestrian accident rates. We first provide an exploratory spatial and statistical analysis of pedestrian collision data in the city of Los Angeles to identify preliminary relationships between accident frequency and socio-demographic and land use characteristics at the census tract and block group levels. This aggregate level analysis also helps us identify major concentrations of pedestrian collision data which are used at a second stage of the research for more qualitative and detailed analysis of specific case studies of intersections with high frequency of pedestrian-automobile accidents. The study uses pedestrian accident data provided by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, traffic volume data provided by Caltrans, socio-demographic data from the U.S. Census 2000, land use data from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), and pedestrian volume and built environment data from fieldwork research.