Neighbourhoods with high bikeability and walkability scores actually present higher crash risks to cyclists and pedestrians in Vancouver, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.
In a study outlined in Transportation Research Record, researchers used five years of crash data from provincial auto insurer ICBC to identify high crash-risk zones in the city of Vancouver. They compared these zones to their walk scores and bike scores—popular metrics used by researchers, transportation planners and real estate agents to indicate how conducive an area is to walking or biking—and discovered that although these zones were deemed to be highly walkable or bikeable, they were associated with higher risks of pedestrian and cyclist crashes, respectively.
“Among the public, there is an implicit assumption that ‘walkable’ and ’bikeable’ means safe for walking and biking, but these indices do not actually include objective measures of safety,” said principal investigator Tarek Sayed, a UBC professor in the department of civil engineering. “When we objectively analyzed the data, we found that the zones with better bikeability and walkability scores had higher collision risks. We controlled for traffic volume and pedestrian and cyclist numbers, so this reflects actual collision risks to individuals.”
Continue reading at University of British Columbia.
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