An investigation of the temporal and spatial patterns of pedestrian accidents in commercial and business areas: a case study of Hong Kong

The identification of accident-prone time periods and locations can help to improve pedestrian safety. This paper addresses the issue of pedestrian safety in Hong Kong by examining the temporal and spatial concentrations of pedestrian accidents in two major commercial and business areas ? Central, the central business district (CBD), and Causeway Bay, a busy shopping district nearby. Pedestrians in commercial and business areas have particularly high risk of road traffic accidents because of the co-existence of high volumes and flows of pedestrians and automobiles. In this paper, geographic information system (GIS) and a spatial statistical method, namely the nearest neighbour analysis, were used to analyze the road accident data of 2003. Several hourly accident peaks were identifiable. Spatially, the distributions of pedestrian accidents in both study areas were found to be significantly clustered. Moreover, the degree of clustering was more remarkable in the shopping district than in the CBD. The temporal and spatial concentrations were then discussed with reference to the surrounding land uses. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of incorporating pedestrian safety in the process of transport and land use planning.