This profile aims to make visible the extent and importance of pedestrian activity and injury in New Zealand. Its focus is on walking as a transport mode, and it aims to provide an accessible overview to those who plan our communities and manage our roads.
This profile aims to provide an overview — or ‘snap shot’ — of pedestrian activity and injury in New Zealand, using data from existing sources of information. Often this has involved undertaking further analysis of the data from a pedestrian perspective. Primary data sources are listed below. Where other sources have been used, these are noted next to the material in question.
Understanding the key travel terms used in this profile
‘Trips’ — The New Zealand Travel Survey (NZTS) divides our travel into the smallest possible units, referring to each ‘leg’ of a journey as a separate ‘trip’.
Take, for example, a mum dropping two children off at their school's gate before driving on to work, parking and walking the last two blocks to her inner city office. In the NZTS, the travel of each person in this scenario is counted separately, with new trips beginning whenever the purpose of travel or the mode of transport used changes. In all, a total of five ‘trips’ would be recorded in the NZTS for the above scenario:
‘Walk trip’ — To be included in the NZTS as a ‘walk trip’, pedestrian activity must be for a distance of at least 100 metres or involve crossing a road. As a result, the NZTS does not capture all our pedestrian activity. For example, while it will easily capture a driving trip to a local shopping precinct, pedestrian activity such as walking between shops and services within that precinct may well be underestimated. It is worth noting that in terms of time spent in the road environment, a pedestrian journey of 100 metres is roughly equivalent to a journey of one kilometre undertaken in a motor vehicle.
‘Journeys’ — Sometimes, one ‘trip’ is enough to fulfil a specific travel purpose (e.g. the two children in the above example being driven directly to the school gate). In other cases, two or more ‘trips’ or ‘legs’ using different modes are required to fulfil a purpose (e.g. the journey to work in the above example, in which a car trip and a walking trip were required). In this Profile, the travel required to fulfil a specific purpose is referred to as a ‘journey’.
The CAS database offers a wealth of valuable information on pedestrian crashes nationally. However it is important to note its limitations:
a) Information on injury incidents not involving a motor vehicle is not collected. An injury incident in which an elderly pedestrian is hospitalised with a broken hip after tripping and falling on a stretch of poorly maintained footpath will not, therefore, be included, even though the incident took place during a transport activity, and within the road corridor.
b) Under-reporting is recognised as a difficulty with the database. For example, LTSA crash statistics for the Auckland region showed a 43% decrease in serious pedestrian crashes (i.e crashes requiring treatment at a hospital) between 1988 and 1997. However hospitalisation statistics showed that pedestrian hospitalisations in the region actually increased by 11% over that time. During the period, under-reporting worsened, with the ratio of reported crashes averaging only 37% over the last five years, down from 51% for the five years previous. Because of this, hospital discharge data rather than reported injuries have been used to establish injury rates.
c) Most crash reports are not the result of intensive crash investigation. They are written by police, operating under time constraints, often in difficult circumstances. The primary role of the officer filling in the report is to establish the facts of an incident, rather than look, for example, at how an environment might be improved to influence safety. As a result, road factors contributing to crashes may not necessarily be noted. Yet crash investigations frequently find that crash sites for which no environmental factors are recorded on the crash report, actually require significant work to improve their level of safety.
d) Crash reports are often reliant on ‘self-reporting’, e.g. by drivers on their speed of travel before the crash. This may lead to contributing factors such as speed being underestimated in the database.
New Zealand travel surveys
National pedestrian activity information in this profile is based on data collected for the New Zealand Travel Surveys, 1989/90 and 1997/98. These surveys involved a sample of more than 4,000 and 8,000 New Zealand households respectively keeping detailed travel records for two day periods over one year. Work/commercial travel undertaken on behalf of an employer was included in the survey.
Data were collated, analysed and expanded using known demographics to provide national estimates of household travel in New Zealand. Comparisons between the two surveys were done after removing the travel trips of 0-4 year olds, as this group was not included in the 1989/90 survey. Data analysis support was provided by Research & Statistics, Land Transport Safety Authority.
Crash Analysis System
Pedestrian crash data (including fatalities) were supplied from the LTSA Crash Analysis System (CAS). CAS contains computerized records of all crashes on public roads reported to LTSA by the NZ Police nationally. For this profile, analysis was undertaken of all (5249) pedestrian crashes recorded for the five year period, 1993-1997. This was supplemented by further research and analysis of a statistically random sample of 100 national pedestrian crashes for specific distance, road classification and roadside environment factors.
Hospitalisation and social cost statistics were supplied by LTSA's Research & Statistics Section. Hospitalisation statistics are based on New Zealand Health Information Service hospital discharge data for pedestrians injured on public roads for the five year period 1993-1997. To establish trends, this period was compared with the previous five year period, 1988-1992. Risk per 100,000 head of population was calculated using the averaged number of injuries per annum for the period in question, and New Zealand Census population figures for either 1991 or 1996.
The National Pedestrian Project
During 1999/2000, the National Pedestrian Project (NPP) undertook a series of linked pedestrian projects funded by the Road Safety Trust. In addition to providing representation and advocacy for pedestrians in a variety of decision-making forums, its work included research, national consultation and dissemination of information on pedestrian issues, activities & international ‘best practice’.
Sections in this profile on the importance of walking and ensuring a healthy future for walking have drawn on the NPP's consultation work, as well as material from a variety of international sources. Some of these sources are listed below:
