Analysis of the elderly pedestrian traffic accidents in urban scenarios: the case of the Spanish municipalities

Abstract

As the elderly population grows, there is a greater concern for their safety on the roads. This is particularly important for elderly pedestrians who are more vulnerable to accidents. In Spain, one of the most aged countries in the world, the elderly accounted for 70% of all pedestrian deaths in 2019. In this study, the focus was on analysing the occurrence of elderly pedestrian-vehicle collisions in Spanish municipalities and how it is related to the built environment. The study used the hurdle negative binomial model to analyse the number of elderly and non-elderly pedestrian accidents per municipality in 2016-2019. The exploratory analysis showed that cities above 50,000 inhabitants were safer for the elderly, and larger provincial capitals had lower elderly pedestrian traffic accident rates. The occurrence of all pedestrian traffic accidents was linked to the socio-demographic features. For elderly pedestrians, land use was found to be influential, with a lower proportion of land covered by manufacturing and service activities linked to a smaller number of accidents. Results showed that improving road safety for older pedestrians may not necessarily compromise the situation for the rest of population. Hence, policymakers should focus on infrastructure improvements adapted to the needs of elderly pedestrians.

Keywords:

• Elderly pedestrians
• road safety
• road traffic collisions
• accident analysis
• built environment

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) for providing the traffic accidents data to develop this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Daniel Gálvez-Pérez is developing his doctoral thesis while he enjoys a grant from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid through the ‘Programa Propio de I + D + I 2020: Ayudas para Contratos Predoctorales’.