title: Pedestrian at-fault crashes on rural and urban roadways in Alabama.
abstract: The research described in this paper explored the factors contributing to the injury severity resulting from pedestrian at-fault crashes in rural and urban locations in Alabama incorporating the effects of randomness across the observations. Given the occurrence of a crash, random parameter logit models of injury severity (with possible outcomes of major, minor, and possible or no injury) for rural and urban locations were estimated. The estimated models identified statistically significant factors influencing the pedestrian injury severities. The results clearly indicated that there are differences between the influences of a variety of variables on the injury severities resulting from urban versus rural pedestrian at-fault accidents. The results showed that some variables were significant only in one location (urban or rural) but not in the other location. Also, estimation findings showed that several parameters could be modeled as random parameters indicating their varying influences on the injury severity. Based on the results obtained, this paper discusses the effects of different variables on pedestrian injury severities and their possible explanations. From planning and policy perspective, the results of this study justify the need for location specific pedestrian safety research and location specific carefully tailored pedestrian safety campaigns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, University of South Alabama, 150 Jaguar Drive, Shelby Hall, Suite 3142, Mobile, AL 36688, United States. Electronic address: sislam@southalabama.edu.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering, University of Alabama, Room 213C Shelby Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States.
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000407:Alabama / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012424:Rural Population; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014505:Urban Population; D016138:Walking / Q000293:injuries*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Logit models; Pedestrian at-fault crashes; Random parameters; Rural; Urban