Spatial Factors Affecting the Frequency of Pedestrian Traffic Crashes: A Systematic Review

CONTEXT Considering the importance of pedestrian traffic crashes and the role of environmental factors in the frequency of crashes, this paper aimed to review the published evidence and synthesize the results of related studies for the associations between environmental factors and distribution of pedestrian-vehicular traffic crashes. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION We searched all epidemiological studies from 1966 to 2015 in electronic databases. We found 2,828 studies. Only 15 observational studies out of these studies met the inclusion criteria of the study. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) checklist. RESULTS A review of the studies showed significant correlations between a large number of spatial variables including student population and the number of schools, population density, traffic volume, roadway density, socio-economic status, number of intersections, and the pedestrian volume and the dependent variable of the frequency of pedestrian traffic crashes. In the studies, some spatial factors that play an important role in determining the frequency of pedestrian traffic crashes, such as facilities for increasing the pedestrians' safety were ignored. CONCLUSIONS It is proposed that the needed research be conducted at national and regional levels in coordination and cooperation with international organizations active in the field of traffic crashes in various parts of the world, especially in Asian, African and Latin American developing countries, where a greater proportion of pedestrian traffic crashes occur.