Pedestrian injury, land use, roadway design, and population density in Kampala City, Uganda

Abstract

Introduction

The way different built environment factors influence pedestrian deaths and injuries in urban areas requires further empirical analysis. This study examines the relationship between pedestrian deaths and injuries, land use, roadway design, and population density among the parishes of Kampala City, Uganda.

Methods

Data on the number of pedestrian injuries and deaths, land use, roadway design, population density, and socioeconomic status were collected from archival or documentary sources such as the police, relevant government ministries, and respective directorates within the Kampala Capital City Authority as well as the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. Factor analysis was used to reduce the 52 built environment variables to a few factors. Factors with low reliability were dropped off leaving 3 factors, “Socio-economic status (vulnerable populations)”, “Industrial land-use”, and “Traffic volumes”. Statistical analysis was conducted using negative binomial regression.

Results

Under the Socio-economic status (vulnerable populations) category, only percentage of population with walking disability was found positively associated with fatal crashes at the 95 % confidential interval (P-value = 0.028). Under the Socio-economic status (vulnerable populations) category, proportion of arterial roads (P-value = 0.033) and percentage of population with walking disability (P-value = 0.05) were found positively associated with serious pedestrian crashes. Additionally, under the industrial land-use category, the number of warehouses/depot businesses were positively associated (P-value = 0.003). Lastly, the proportion of local roads was found inversely associated (P-value = 0.031) with serious pedestrian crashes under the traffic volumes' category.

Discussion

These results show some similarities and dissimilarities with findings from previous studies. The findings confirm that industrial land use (warehouse depots) and arterial roads are associated with increased pedestrian crashes while local roads have less pedestrian crashes; similar to previous studies regardless of settings. This study also highlights that people with walking disabilities are at an increased risk of pedestrian crashes.

Conclusion

This study not only extends existing work on the relationship between pedestrian crash risk and the built environment but also contributes to the micro-level influence of land use, roadway design and population density, and socioeconomic and demographic variables at the ward unit in Kampala City, Uganda thus facilitating the development of urban interventions. The findings of this study have implications for land use and transportation planning at the parish/ward level in African cities with similar settings.