# Identifying alcohol-related and built environment factors that can be modified to prevent pedestrian road traffic death

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2022 · $657,634

## Abstract

Every year in the United States automobiles kill about 6,000 pedestrians and injure another 70,000, a significant
health burden, especially for cities where pedestrian deaths and injuries are most common. Over 35% of all
fatally struck pedestrians are under the influence of alcohol at the time they are killed. Many cities are developing
and promoting nightlife districts, prominently featuring alcohol-serving establishments, as part of economic
development plans to revitalize urban spaces. By clustering alcohol outlets, these urban initiatives may also
cluster intoxicated pedestrians near intoxicated or distracted drivers. Currently, research and public policies
focused on preventing pedestrian fatalities fail to account for the built environments pedestrians walk into when
they leave alcohol-serving establishments, despite the risks these environments pose for pedestrian injuries and
fatalities. In addition, emerging evidence suggests that homeless individuals are at particular risk for pedestrian
injury, and they make up a significant percentage (~25%) of the pedestrians killed while under the influence of
alcohol. Cities across the U.S. are developing plans to prevent all pedestrian fatalities, yet none of these city
plans even mention the role of alcohol use by pedestrians or have action items to address this modifiable risk
factor. The broad objective of this proposal is to conduct a nationwide geographic case-control study of
pedestrian fatalities to identify modifiable retail, built, economic and social environment risk factors within cities,
especially risk factors related to alcohol sales and consumption. Case locations will be urban street segments or
intersections where pedestrians were fatally struck from 2017-2018 and two control locations, street segments
or intersections where fatalities did not occur, will be matched to the case locations. The presence of alcohol
retail establishments (e.g. bars, clubs, liquor stores), nightlife districts, services for the homeless and
encampments and informal sheltering locations (e.g. bridges and overpasses) will serve as the key independent
variables of interest. We hypothesize that alcohol-involved pedestrian fatalities are a distinct subtype of
pedestrian fatality and have different built environment risk factor profiles from pedestrian fatalities that do not
involve alcohol. Neighborhood-, street- and intersection-level features for case and control locations will be
measured via GIS analyses and via neighborhood audits conducted using Google Street View and our online
research tool, the Computer Assisted Neighborhood Visual Assessment System (CANVAS). As part of this
proposal we will expand the capabilities of CANVAS for conducting nationwide virtual neighborhood audits via
Google Street View. We will also test whether proximity to retail alcohol outlets, nightlife districts or services for
the homeless increases risk for pedestrian fatality and whether this risk is heightened by built envir...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10428536
- **Project number:** 5R01AA028552-02
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Andrew G Rundle
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $657,634
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-06-15 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10428536

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10428536, Identifying alcohol-related and built environment factors that can be modified to prevent pedestrian road traffic death (5R01AA028552-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10428536. Licensed CC0.

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