Journal of Transport and Land Use

Social vulnerability: A review of the literature on pedestrian crash risk in lower-income and minority communities

Eric Dumbaugh

Florida Atlantic University

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5254-9711

Jonathan Stiles

Columbia University

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7613-1814

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.2025.2547

Keywords: Pedestrian, Crashes, Inequality, Road safety, Urban form, Social vulnerability

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Abstract

Lower-income and minority populations in the United States are at disproportionate risk of being injured or killed while walking. This review synthesizes the literature to understand the magnitude of this risk, as well as the underlying factors that may best explain it. On average, lower-income areas experience 3 times the number of per capita pedestrian fatalities as affluent areas. With respect to race, Hispanic people are 1.6 times as likely to be killed as are White non-Hispanic people, while Black people are 1.7 times more likely to be killed, and Indigenous persons are fully 4 times as likely. Despite the consistency of these findings, none of the prevailing explanations, such as increased exposure or increased likelihood of walking under the influence, are supported by the literature. Instead, the primary difference pertains to trip purposes. Affluent households walk primarily for leisure and recreation. If an environment is perceived as being unpleasant or unsafe, they can shift the trip to another location or forego the trip entirely. Lower-income households, by contrast, walk principally for utilitarian reasons, making them less able to avoid unsafe environments. This paper concludes by discussing the need to better account for social vulnerability in planning and project development processes.

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