Mixed method assessment of built environment and policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by United States municipalities focusing on walking and bicycling actions.

Introduction: In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted community officials to initiate local level environmental and policy changes to slow the spread of infection and provide more opportunities for outdoor recreation. Changes in both regards could positively or negatively impact walking and bicycling. Using a mixed methods approach, the purpose of this United States-based study was to systematically describe municipal response to the pandemic at the community level through environmental and policy changes that may have impacted walking and bicycling. Methods: Websites of all United States' municipalities with a residential population of at least 100,000 (n = 314) were searched to identify environmental and policy changes that might impact walking/bicycling as a result of the pandemic. When actions were identified, we systematically abstracted information from the websites. To provide more contextual information, we interviewed representatives from 12 municipalities about changes made at the municipal level as a result of the pandemic that could impact walking and bicycling. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded for themes. Results: For the 314 municipalities, we identified 353 actions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic that may impact walking and bicycling. Approximately double the number of actions were identified in large-size municipalities (234 actions in 157 municipalities with population≥165,000) compared to mid-size municipalities (119 actions among 157 municipalities with population 100,000 to 164,999). Generally, fewer actions that might suppress walking and bicycling (n = 59) were identified in comparison to actions that would likely facilitate walking and bicycling (n = 294). In-depth interviews provided further context and insight into these results. Conclusion: This mixed-method assessment provides an overview of the environmental and policy changes which may impact walking and bicycling that municipalities implemented in 2020 due to the pandemic. A next step in this line of inquiry is to quantify the impact of these changes on population levels of walking and bicycling and related health and safety outcomes.

Insights into the long-term effects of COVID-19 responses on transportation facilities.

The impacts of COVID-19 on transportation sector have received a substantial research attention, however, less is known about localized COVID-19 responses that provided safe space for mobility and other daily activities. We applied logistic regression and text mining approaches on the Shifting Streets COVID-19 Mobility Dataset to explore the long-term outcomes of the localized responses. We explored the purpose, affected space, function, and implementation approach. We found that responses instituted for economic recovery and public health are less likely to be long-term, while responses meant to improve safety or bicycle/pedestrian mobility are more likely to be long-term. Further, operational or regulatory responses are less likely to be long-term. Additionally, responses affecting curb space are more likely to be long-term than those affecting other right-of-way areas. Text-mining of responses' narratives revealed key patterns for both short-term and long-term outcomes. Study findings showcase the possible design and operations changes during post-COVID-19 era.

Automated Vehicles and Pedestrian Safety: Exploring the Promise and Limits of Pedestrian Detection.

INTRODUCTION: U.S. pedestrian fatalities have risen recently, even as vehicles are equipped with increasingly sophisticated safety and crash avoidance technology. Many experts expect that advances in automated vehicle technology will reduce pedestrian fatalities substantially through eliminating crashes caused by human error. This paper investigates automated vehicles' potential for reducing pedestrian fatalities by analyzing nearly 5,000 pedestrian fatalities recorded in 2015 in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, virtually reconstructing them under a hypothetical scenario that replaces involved vehicles with automated versions equipped with state-of-the-art (as of December 2017) sensor technology. METHODS: This research involved the following activities: (1) establish functional ranges of state-of-the-art pedestrian sensor technologies, (2) use data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System to identify pedestrian fatalities recorded in each state in the U.S. and District of Columbia in 2015, and (3) assess the maximum numbers of pedestrian fatalities that could have been avoided had involved vehicles been replaced with autonomous versions equipped with the described sensors. The research was conducted from July to December 2017. RESULTS: Sensors' abilities to detect pedestrians in advance of fatal collisions vary from <30% to >90% of fatalities. Combining sensor technologies offers the greatest potential for eliminating fatalities, but may be unrealistically expensive. Furthermore, whereas initial deployment of automated vehicles will likely be restricted to freeways and select urban areas, non-freeway streets and rural settings account for a substantial share of pedestrian fatalities. CONCLUSIONS: Although technologies are being developed for automated vehicles to successfully detect pedestrians in advance of most fatal collisions, the current costs and operating conditions of those technologies substantially decrease the potential for automated vehicles to radically reduce pedestrian fatalities in the short term.

Community-based pedestrian safety training in virtual reality: A pragmatic trial.

Child pedestrian injuries are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity across the United States and the world. Repeated practice at the cognitive-perceptual task of crossing a street may lead to safer pedestrian behavior. Virtual reality offers a unique opportunity for repeated practice without the risk of actual injury. This study conducted a pre-post within-subjects trial of training children in pedestrian safety using a semi-mobile, semi-immersive virtual pedestrian environment placed at schools and community centers. Pedestrian safety skills among a group of 44 seven- and eight-year-old children were assessed in a laboratory, and then children completed six 15-minute training sessions in the virtual pedestrian environment at their school or community center following pragmatic trial strategies over the course of three weeks. Following training, pedestrian safety skills were re-assessed. Results indicate improvement in delay entering traffic following training. Safe crossings did not demonstrate change. Attention to traffic and time to contact with oncoming vehicles both decreased somewhat, perhaps an indication that training was incomplete and children were in the process of actively learning to be safer pedestrians. The findings suggest virtual reality environments placed in community centers hold promise for teaching children to be safer pedestrians, but future research is needed to determine the optimal training dosage.

Reliability and validity of the Safe Routes to school parent and student surveys.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of the U.S. National Center for Safe Routes to School's in-class student travel tallies and written parent surveys. Over 65,000 tallies and 374,000 parent surveys have been completed, but no published studies have examined their measurement properties. METHODS: Students and parents from two Charlotte, NC (USA) elementary schools participated. Tallies were conducted on two consecutive days using a hand-raising protocol; on day two students were also asked to recall the previous days' travel. The recall from day two was compared with day one to assess 24-hour test-retest reliability. Convergent validity was assessed by comparing parent-reports of students' travel mode with student-reports of travel mode. Two-week test-retest reliability of the parent survey was assessed by comparing within-parent responses. Reliability and validity were assessed using kappa statistics. RESULTS: A total of 542 students participated in the in-class student travel tally reliability assessment and 262 parent-student dyads participated in the validity assessment. Reliability was high for travel to and from school (kappa > 0.8); convergent validity was lower but still high (kappa > 0.75). There were no differences by student grade level. Two-week test-retest reliability of the parent survey (n=112) ranged from moderate to very high for objective questions on travel mode and travel times (kappa range: 0.62-0.97) but was substantially lower for subjective assessments of barriers to walking to school (kappa range: 0.31-0.76). CONCLUSIONS: The student in-class student travel tally exhibited high reliability and validity at all elementary grades. The parent survey had high reliability on questions related to student travel mode, but lower reliability for attitudinal questions identifying barriers to walking to school. Parent survey design should be improved so that responses clearly indicate issues that influence parental decision making in regards to their children's mode of travel to school.