Vulnerable road user safety and freight vehicles: A case study in North Carolina and Tennessee

Abstract

Increasing freight traffic has posed greater road safety threats to Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), including pedestrians and bicyclists, in urban communities. Although there are some disaggregated studies on truck-related crashes, the literature offers limited knowledge of how crash-level factors influence crashes related to urban freight. Our study uses crash data from North Carolina (2007–2019) and Tennessee (2009–2019) to explore the relationship between the crash-level factors and the occurrence and injury severity of crashes involving freight vehicles and VRUs. Crash-level factors include socio-demographics of VRUs and freight vehicle drivers, driving behaviors, temporal and weather effects, and environmental factors. The results indicate that freight-related VRU crashes, compared to nonfreight-related VRU crashes, are more likely to occur at private properties and parking areas and have a higher probability of causing severe injuries or deaths. The results also show that the involvement of larger vehicles and the occurrence at midblock segments are positively associated with more severe injury outcomes. The research results could help community and transport designers to increase attention to the safety impacts of growing freight traffic in urban communities.