Page 18 - Delaware Medical Journal - July 2016
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FIGURE 5
Analysis of accidents by education level distribution within Delaware. The top panel shows a map indicating the high school education level by census tract in Delaware. The bottom panel shows ANOVA comparison of normalized accident frequency across quintiles of population. Stars are placed atop bars if that quintile is significantly different from the others indicated. Where only a single difference
is noted, the star may be placed between the connector. Double stars (**) indicate a significant difference as per the BH correction, whereas single stars (*) indicate a difference at the P < 0.05 level. Those census tracts with the highest levels of education (darker blue on the graph) have significantly fewer accidents.
the age of 5 years and 22.4 percent of the population is under the age of 18 years. This encompasses about 200,000 individuals
from the total population. These aforementioned percentiles are similar to national data (population under the age of 5 is 6.3 percent and under the age of 18 is 23.3 percent). Further, our state, when compared nationally, has a lower percentage of Caucasians, Asians, and Hispanics and a higher percentage of African Americans.9 reporting that the urban poor are disproportionately affected by pedestrian motor vehicle injuries.2 median income, highest percentage of individuals without a high school degree, and highest percentage of African Americans.
In the 1950s, when the modern highway system was built, interstates and large roads were routinely run through poor urban areas, displacing people and creating an extended footprint of roads.10 Mohl10 has suggested that the history of urban planning is at least partly to blame for the juxtaposition of neighborhoods to characterize the geo-epidemiology of motor vehicle crashes and pedestrian injuries.2,8,11 This software enables investigators to develop and appropriately direct prevention strategies and resources. Delaware is a good state example to use because it is very heterogeneous in terms of age, race/ethnicity, landscape, and socioeconomic status. The two locations in Delaware with the highest proportional frequencies of pediatric motor vehicle pedestrian injuries have several high-volume roadways that
In Wilmington, these are bounded or bisected by the busiest roadways in the state: Route 4 (Maryland Avenue), I-95, Route 202 (Concord Avenue), Business 13 (Walnut and Market
Streets), and Route 48 (Lancaster Avenue). In Dover, the hot spot corresponds to the census tract between State Street and Route 13 (DuPont Highway). In a recent study that looked at roadway characteristics and pediatric pedestrian injury, DiMaggio and Li concluded that modest interventions to the built environment may result in reduction in the risk of pedestrian injury.4
These interventions include, but are not limited to, separating play areas from roadways, improving intersection visibility, enhancing pavement markings, and improving lighting.
Retting et al12 and looked at separation of pedestrians from vehicles by time or space, measures that increase the visibility of pedestrians, and reduction in vehicle speeds. They concluded that these measures resulted in increased effectiveness: installation of roundabouts, sidewalks, pedestrian signal phasing, refugee islands, and
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Del Med J | July 2016 | Vol. 88 | No. 7
