Accident; analysis and prevention
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Review Meta Analysis
Recommend or mandate? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of mandatory bicycle helmet legislation.
If all cyclistswere wearing helmets, significant numbers of head injuries might theoretically be prevented. Mandatory bicycle helmet legislation increases helmet use but is a controversial measure. Results from 21 studies of the effects of mandatory bicycle helmet legislation on injuries among crash involved cyclists were investigated by means of meta-analysis and the effects of several potential biases were investigated. ⋯ Some adverse effects may occur, but will not necessarily be large or long-lasting. People who may be deterred from cycling, are among those with the highest injury risk and the smallest health effects from cycling. If the overall goal is to improve safety for all cyclists and to increase cycling, mandatory bicycle helmet legislation should be supplemented by other measures, especially improved bicycle infrastructure.
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The focus of this research paper is on extraction of predictor variables pertaining to on-network, traffic, signal, demographic, and land use characteristics, by area type, and examining their influence on the number of red light violation crashes. Data for the city of Charlotte, North Carolina was extracted and used for analysis. Three different sets of signalized intersections were selected in the three different area types - Central Business District (CBD), urban, and suburban areas. ⋯ Different predictor variables were found to be significant at a 95% confidence level in three different areas. Log-link model with Negative Binomial distribution was observed to best fit the data used in this research. Findings indicate that enforcement, either manually or using red light running cameras (RLCs), at signalized intersections with high traffic volume in the CBD area; at signalized intersections with high traffic volume, high all-red clearance time, near high density of horizontal mixed non-residential and open space/recreational type land uses in urban area; at signalized intersections with high traffic volume, speed limit on the major approach, the number of lanes on the minor approach, and all-red clearance time and areas surrounded with horizontal mixed non-residential and retail type land use in suburban areas, would lead to a reduction in the number of red light violation crashes.