Spatial distribution of roadway environment features related to child pedestrian safety by census tract income in Toronto, Canada

Rothman, Linda; Cloutier, Marie‐Soleil; Manaugh, Kevin; Howard, Andrew; Macpherson, Alison; Macarthur, Colin · 2019 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043125

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

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Summary

This study investigates socioeconomic inequities in the distribution of roadway environment features related to child pedestrian safety in Toronto, Canada. While pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions (PMVC) are known to occur more frequently in lower-income neighborhoods, little research has examined whether disparities in the built environment contribute to this risk. The authors aimed to determine if specific safety features, such as traffic calming measures, were distributed unevenly across income levels and to assess the relationship between these features and child PMVC rates. The researchers utilized spatial cluster detection based on 2006 Canadian Census data to identify low-income and high-income census tract clusters in Toronto. They mapped police-reported PMVC involving children aged 5–14 years from 2001 to 2010, alongside roadway features including speed hump density, local road density, crossing guard density, one-way street density, and missing sidewalk density. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to examine the relationship between roadway features and cluster income status, controlling for child population. Local roads were defined as having low traffic speeds and volumes, serving as a proxy for safer driving conditions. The analysis identified 44 low-income and 58 high-income census tract clusters. Child PMVC rates were 5.4 times higher in low-income clusters compared to high-income clusters. Significant disparities were found in the distribution of safety infrastructure: low-income clusters had nearly four times fewer speed humps and 1.4 times fewer local roads than high-income clusters. Conversely, high-income clusters had significantly higher densities of missing sidewalks and longer total road lengths. School crossing guard density was twice as high in low-income clusters, though most were located at arterial intersections. Multivariate analysis confirmed that speed humps and local roads were significantly less likely to be present in low-income areas. There were no significant differences in one-way street density or injury severity between the groups. The findings suggest that socioeconomic inequities in the distribution of protective roadway features partially explain the higher PMVC rates in low-income neighborhoods. The authors attribute the disparity in speed humps to a request-based implementation process that favors communities with higher political engagement. Because low-income areas also feature more arterial roads with higher speeds and volumes, the lack of traffic calming measures exacerbates risk. The study concludes that urban planning policies must move beyond reactive, request-based processes toward objective, equity-focused methods for identifying safety needs to ensure safe pedestrian environments for all residents.

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• demographic disparities