ISF Workshop: Urban innovation through
walkability and spatial cognition
September 19-21, 2022, Tel Aviv University
Prof. Sigal Kaplan
Sigal Kaplan is Associate Professor of Transport behavior and Smart Transport Systems at the Hebrew University. Her research focuses on travel choices as a function of the physical, social, and institutional and policy environment. Sigal is interested in active travel, traffic safety and vulnerable road users, equity, women and gender, public transport, Mobility-as-a-Service, and multi-modal travel apps. Sigal conducted studies in Israel, Europe (Denmark, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Spain, and Portugal), South America (Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico), China, United States, New Zealand and Australia. Sigal has extensive experience with the statistical and econometric modelling in the area of discrete choice, structural equation models, and advanced data mining techniques and her studies are based both on revealed and stated preferences. Sigal has published 76 papers in scientific journals and participated in European projects including IMPROSE, SUSTAIN, SELECT, ACTUM and TRANSTOOLS.
Using spatial analysis to understand the impact of vision-zero on pedestrian injuries in New York City
Abstract:
With:
Shai Shachar, Peter Billig, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Alfred Stein, University of Twente
The aim of this study is to understand the impact of Vision Zero road improvements on pedestrian accidents. While Vision Zero originating in Sweden is Being adopted in many cities the impact of Vision Zero (VZ) and its effectiveness have not been quantified. We use a unique data set of documented visual and physical road improvements and pedestrian accidents between 2014-2019 in New-York. The data, available from the New-York open data platform, includes Pedestrian injuries, VZ upgraded Corridors, Traffic volume counts, Land Use and zoning. We conduct two types of analysis: 1) the effect of the improvements in a before-after study, 2) the effect on improved versus similar nearby unimproved sections. The time window includes 2 years before and after the improvement, consisting of 8,165 Crashes with pedestrian injuries. We used a Geyer non-stationary model and permutation analysis of treated and non-treated road sections, while controlling for road characteristics (traffic volumes, number of lanes), land use (proximity to schools, parks, commercial areas and public transport), and driver behavior (distracted driving). The analysis results show that the improvements did not help in significantly reducing the injuries before and after the implementation. Nevertheless, when comparing the treated versus non-treated sections, the latter show a significant increase in pedestrian injuries at the same time period. The difference between change in the treated versus untreated sections is statistically significant and robust under various sensitivity tests of the selected time window and spatial buffer.The policy implication is that VZ road improvements as a stand-alone short-term policy measures may have only local effectiveness in retraining accident growth and possibly result in greater dispersion of pedestrian injuries to nearby roads.
(Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, 14:00-15:30 IL)
