Does elderly safety matter? Associations between built environments and pedestrian crashes in Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Korea's elderly population is growing rapidly, as is attention to elderly pedestrian safety. Despite a consensus that the elderly are vulnerable to pedestrian safety issues, our understanding of the determinants of elderly pedestrian crashes is limited. This study explores which attributes of the built environment affect the risk of pedestrian accidents among the elderly, particularly with respect to injury severity, in Seoul, Korea. We compare the impacts of various determinants on pedestrian crashes to specify how the associations between various built environments and pedestrian accidents differ by pedestrian age. We also examine how the associations vary by neighborhood economic attributes. Our findings provide policy implications for identifying various attributes of the built environment that increase the risk of elderly pedestrian crashes and improving the safety of elderly pedestrian by neighborhood economic status.

Keywords: Built environments; Economic heterogeneity; Elderly pedestrian; Negative binomial regression; Traffic accident.