Characteristics of pedestrian crash : a case study in Louisiana

Abstract

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable users of the transportation system. While encouraging “Green Transportation”, a sad fact emerges in the United States: Pedestrian deaths are climbing faster than motorist fatalities, reaching nearly 6,000 deaths in 2016 -- the highest total in more than two decades. In the state of Louisiana, pedestrian fatalities reached 104, 14% of annual total fatalities in 2015 with pedestrian fatality rate much higher than the national average. Using seven years of crash data, we investigate pedestrian crash in Louisiana. It is alarming to see that close to 70% of fatal pedestrian crashes involved either alcohol or drugs (not drivers) in the state. Pedestrians’’ physical and mental conditions played a key role in fatal and injury crashes. The older pedestrians (50+ in age) have the highest crash risk, almost twice higher than pedestrians younger than 30. Only 19% of pedestrian crashes occurred at intersections. The “peak hour” for fatal pedestrian crashes is at night. The fatal and injury pedestrian crashes occurred daytime is less than for 40%. How to reduce the pedestrian crashes is a huge task facing Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. This paper will present the detail of the study and demonstrates how to development the effective crash countermeasures to target unique pedestrian crash problem in Louisiana