Injury Hotspots Toronto

This study highlighted the definite link between features of the built environment and pedestrian injury hotspots. The virtual environmental scans revealed that all of the features we hypothesized may be contributors, were not necessarily significant. This included bike lanes, construction, transit hub, street cars, one way streets, street art and wide sidewalks. We chose to evaluate these elements as they are often found at intersections and incorporated along transit routes. However, with none of these elements meeting the threshold of significance, it emphasizes the importance of the eight remaining factors. Additionally, we are able to conclude that certain features have a higher probability of affecting pedestrian injury rates. The analysis also revealed that pedestrian injuries are also associated with pedestrian volume and population density, specifically in the downtown core.

Virtual audits in this project were mafe possible by an online geospatial service. This study utilized Google Maps, and it's Street View capability to complete the audits. Ideally, the images captured in the visual scene would match those dates of incidents reported. However, Google Street View is constantly being updated with new images over the years. When using Street View, Google frequently offers the most recent scans, and not necessarily those which reflect the time of the incident in our study. When performing the virtual audits, the date button opens the image history to be adjusted frequently to ensure that images captured between 2010-2014 were being audited. For instance, the images below show a discrepancy between image capture dates. Image 1, shows an image captured in 2014 that is undergoing construction. Image 2 shows that same street in the most recent view provided by Google Streetview in 2015. Although this option seemed very user friendly, it was evident after a few audits that it was not and that there were a lot of opportunities for discrepancy when performing the virtual scans.

Image 1: Captured 2014

Image 2: Captured 2015