A new study shows that children who walk and ride bikes in certain areas may be more at risk of injury, depending on where they live.
The study by the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University shows how children may be a risk depending on their neighborhoods and how those injuries may contribute to their physical and mental health.
“In the Houston area, one of the biggest limiting factors for children using active transportation is the risk of motor vehicle injury, but work is already under way to improve their safety,” the study’s authors, Zoabe Hafeez and Shruti Natarajan, note.
Beware of these streets
The study recorded 629 incidents of such injuries and fatalities to children between 2018-2023, of which:
- 21 were fatal
- 159 were serious.
With the geospatial data collected from 454 incidents, these areas were identified as hotspots for injuries: two in southwest Houston and the third in the Sunnyside neighborhood.
Beechnut Street near Wilcrest Drive, Alief: The intersection of Beechnut and Wilcrest, five to seven lanes wide at each crossing, is a commercial hub in the Alief neighborhood. It has four strip malls, including an African goods store, two Viet-Cajun restaurants, and a beauty college. What makes this intersection dangerous is its 30 driveways without signals that open into streets.
Two children died in this intersection last year, and two serious injuries occurred in this area.Glenmont Drive from Renwick Drive to Royalton Street, Gulfton: Gulfton, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, has a dense population. Here, four children were injured at Glenmont Drive.
The Sunnyside Square Mile, Sunnyside: The Black-majority Sunnyside has four schools and reported 12 incidents. Among these, one was fatal. The injuries occurred on various road types, such as the intersection of Bellfort and Cullen, midblock crossings of fast-moving roads, and slow-moving neighborhood streets, per the report.
According to TxDOT’s Crash Record Information System, the rate of severe transportation injuries within Harris County’s Black population was 196 per 100,000 residents in 2023. Among the general population, this number is 135 per 100,000 residents. The report attributes this number to several reasons — underinvestments in infrastructure in historically marginalized communities, disparities in medical access and response, and drunk driving due to a higher number of liquor stores situated in communities of color.Hillcroft Avenue, Gulfton: Both Houston’s “Safe Street Initiative” and Baker Institute for Public Policy’s study identified a stretch of Hillcroft Avenue as an injury hotspot. The report lists a redesigned version in 2021, keeping in mind the safety of all users: wider sidewalks, shared-use bikeways, improved intersections for pedestrian access, improved bus stop access, and a reduction of motor vehicle lanes from eight to six.
Vehicle speeds were also reduced by 5-10 miles per hour in two major intersections with a high number of active transportation users. As a result, it reduced the likelihood of pedestrians and bicyclists encountering cars in unsignalized intersections and could travel at higher speeds.
The city of Houston has begun to improve the conditions where a large number of active transportation-related injuries take place to curb deaths and serious injuries.
For this work, comprising four projects, the Department of Transportation awarded Houston $10.1 million.
What the study recommends
The study says there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to solutions in these areas. However, the following general precautions could help:
- Focusing on the worst affected areas to help stakeholders use the necessary tools to reduce the number of injuries,
- Improving sidewalks and crosswalks, including widening sidewalks into shared-use pathways, minimizing unsignalized conflict points, creating pedestrian-friendly intersections, and
- Behavioral interventions, which include working alongside law enforcement and schools to teach pedestrian and bicycling behaviors, and implementing a “walking school bus,” where children in groups walk to school under the supervision of a parent.
“Interventions to reduce injury and fatality to children in active transportation incidents can serve the dual purpose of improving child health and creating more economically strong communities. Building attractive, walkable communities where children can flourish also increases commercial and residential property values, decreases the need for parking lots, and reduces public expenditure,” says the study. “Taken together, identifying and intervening against child active transportation injury hot spots can have outsized benefits across a variety of domains.”
