Safety And Mobility Of Adolescent Pedestrians In The Urban Space: The Example Of The Lille Metropolitan Area

Little is known on the detailed characteristics of the mobility and accidents of pedestrian teenagers in France. The safety of pedestrians aged 10 to 15 years has been less studied in the literature than that of younger pedestrians, yet nowadays this age group corresponds to the highest victim rate for pedestrian accidents. The assumption is that this higher rate is due in part to the peculiarities of their mobility and their use of urban space. Through a spatial analysis of the territory of the Lille metropolitan area, this article provides insights into the determinants of this specific involvement of adolescents in pedestrian accidents. This work is based on accident data obtained through the analysis of police reports on injury accidents (occurred in the Lille metropolitan area for the period 2002-2011), and mobility data from the 2006 survey on households' travel activities carried out by the authorities of the Lille metropolitan area. The results highlight the importance of the factors related to the exposure to traffic in the involvement of adolescents in pedestrian accidents. The spatial analysis also reveals specific concentrations of adolescent pedestrian accidents in suburban areas near to urban centers. Finally, through the detailed accident analysis, the main processes leading to accidents involving adolescent pedestrians are identified, as well as the role of some characteristics of infrastructure and spatial contexts in these processes.