Accident-Zone: Poorer Neighborhoods Have Less-Safe Road Designs (Give me a BARF...)

Scientific American ^ | 5/3/12 | Sarah Fecht

[LibWhacker]

Traffic injuries are four to six times higher in low-income areas of Montreal, compared with wealthy neighborhoods. Researchers find that better road designs could reduce those disparities

Approximately 40,000 people will die on U.S. roads this year, and thousands more will be injured. A disproportionate number of those traffic injuries will befall people from lower-income communities. According to new research, pedestrians in the poorest neighborhoods of Montreal were six times more likely to suffer traffic injuries than pedestrians in the wealthiest neighborhoods. Bicyclists and motorists in poorer neighborhoods were also at greater risk; they were four times more likely to be injured on the road.

[Alberta's Child]

Thanks. It’s an interesting case up there in Montreal. It’s very similar to New York City in a lot of ways ... lots of rich and poor, and most of the middle class lives in the suburbs.

[Alberta's Child]

In that case, the engineering would involve narrowing the street to make room for a wider sidewalk. The key is to have a street that works in the context of the area where it is located. Having an eight-lane wide boulevard in an area with lots of pedestrians doesn’t make any sense, for example.