The development of effective roadway design and operation,
education, and enforcement measures to accommodate pedestrians
and prevent crashes is hindered by insufficient detail in
computerized state and local crash files. Analysis of these
databases can provide information on where pedestrian crashes
occur (city, street, intersection, two-lane road, etc.),
when they occur (time of day, day of week, etc.), and characteristics
of the victims involved (age, gender, injury severity, etc.).
Current crash files cannot provide a sufficient level of
detail regarding the sequence of events leading to the crash.
In the 1970s, methods for typing pedestrian
and bicycle crashes were developed by
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) to better define the sequence
of events and precipitating actions leading
to pedestrian/motor vehicle crashes.1,2,3,4
These methodologies were applied by Hunter
in a 1996 study to more than 8,000 pedestrian
and bicycle crashes from 6 states.1,2,3,4
The results provided a representative
summary of the distribution of crash types experienced by pedestrians
and bicyclists. Some of the most frequently occurring types, include
dart-out first half (i.e., the pedestrian is struck in the first half
of the street being crossed) (24 percent), intersection dash (13 percent),
dart-out second half (10 percent), midblock dart (8 percent), and turning-
vehicle crashes (5 percent).1,2,3,4
The crash-typing methodology described above has evolved
over time and has been refined as part
of a software package known as the Pedestrian
and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool (PBCAT).5
The development of PBCAT was sponsored
by the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) and NHTSA through the University
of North Carolina Highway Safety Research
Center. Those interested may register
for the PBCAT software and user’s
manual from the Pedestrian and Bicycle
Information Center website at: www.walkinginfo.org/pbcat.
PBCAT is a software product intended to assist state and local pedestrian
and bicycle coordinators, planners, and engineers with the
problem of lack of data regarding the sequence of events
leading to a crash. PBCAT accomplishes this goal through
the development and analysis of a database containing details associated
with crashes between motor vehicles and pedestrians or bicyclists. One
of these details is the crash type, which describes the pre-crash actions
of the parties involved. The more than 60 specific pedestrian crash types
used in PBCAT can be collapsed into 12 crash typing groups for purposes
of selecting treatments.
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