Charles Brown

Exploration of the effect of violent crime on recreational and transportation walking by path and structural equation models

&NA; To examine how violent crime affects peoples recreational and transportation walking duration in daytime and after dark on a typical day, this study undertakes associative and causal analyses with geo‐referenced crime data, street‐audit data, and data collected through an intercept survey in a three‐municipality region of New Jersey that is predominantly inhabited by low‐income and minority populations. Survey data was collected from 1173 respondents at 87 intersections selected by stratified random sampling. Similar to many past studies using associative methods, correlation analysis and ordered logit models showed mostly counterintuitive results. However, sequential or causal models, including path and structural equation (SE) models, showed that recorded crime increases fear of crime and chances of victimization, which in turn decrease walking duration for both recreation and transportation. The study concludes that even if people walk more in high‐crime areas because of nearby destinations and lack of alternatives, crime may still have an adverse effect on walking, meaning that people in those neighborhoods would have walked even more if not for high crime. HighlightsRecorded violent crime adversely effects both recreational and transport walking.Violent crime has a more discernible effect on daytime recreational walking.Violent crime has a more discernible effect on transport walking after dark.Causal models provide more intuitive results than associative models.

What Do Planning Professionals, Police, and Pedestrians in General Think About Distracted Driving and Walking?

Issues that relate to distracted driving and walking are discussed by presenting results from a survey of planning professionals, police officers, and pedestrians in New Jersey. The pedestrian intercept survey was completed by 788 individuals, while the online surveys for planning professionals and police officers were completed by 209 and 156 individuals, respectively. The surveys primarily focused on the perceptions of seriousness, prevalence, and solutions to distracted driving and walking. One of the key findings from the surveys is that all three groups considered distracted driving and walking to be serious problems that were becoming increasingly more common over time. Of types of driving distractions, texting and talking on handheld phones were considered to be two of the most common and yet least safe driver distractions. All three groups perceived mandatory education for new drivers, stricter enforcement of existing laws, and more severe penalties for drivers involved in crashes as the most important solutions to distracted driving. Educating students by schools was considered to be the most important solution to distracted walking. While strong support was found for police checking phones of drivers involved in crashes, little support was found for police intervention to curb distracted walking. The study’s findings are being discussed through outreach with select agencies to develop and adopt strategies to address distracted driving and walking in New Jersey.