The Safety of Pedestrian and Bicycle Travel in Minnesota: Inventory, Analysis, and Prospectus

As attention in transportation circles increasingly focuses on encouraging pedestrian and bicycle travel, it is important that planning initiatives be informed about the safety aspects of these modes. However, recent research suggests a limited understanding of the features that affect the pedestrian and bicycle travel, particularly when it comes to safety. The report examines the information that is collected regarding pedestrian and bicycle crashes in Minnesota in comparison to other states and looks at new ways in which these data can be used to increase knowledge of pedestrian and bicycle crashes. To do this exercise the authors exploit a database of crash report information for all pedestrian and bicycle crashes in the State of Minnesota from 1998-2002. The analysis examines general trends of pedestrian and bicycle crashes. In addition, the authors demonstrate that pedestrian crashes tend to occur in different locations than bicycle crashes. The final part of the paper focuses on developing a method to identify where pedestrian and bicycle crashes are more likely to occur. Poisson regression is used to identify the relationships between crashes and neighborhood attributes.