ITS Berkeley

Comparative analysis of pedestrian injuries using police, emergency department, and death certificate data sources in North Carolina, US, 2007–2012

Sandt, LS
Proescholdbell, S
Evenson, K
Robinson, W
Rodriguez, D
Harmon, K
Marshall, S
2020
Pedestrian safety programs are needed to address the rising incidence of pedestrian fatalities. Unfortunately, most communities lack comprehensive information on the circumstances of pedestrian crashes and resulting injuries that could help guide decision-making for prevention program development and implementation. This study aimed to evaluate how three commonly available data sources (police-reported pedestrian crashes, emergency department [ED] visits, and death certificates) define and capture pedestrian injury data, and to compare the distribution of pedestrian injuries and fatalities...

Heterogeneity in the Urban Scaling of Premature Mortality by City Definition in the United States

McCulley, EM
Mullachery, PH
Rodriguez, D
Roux, AV Diez
Bilal, U
2021
With more than half of the world’s population currently living in cities, there is a need to understand how city-level factors, such as city size, can influence health in cities. However, there are numerous ways to define and delineate city boundaries. We explored whether years of life lost (YLL), a measure of premature mortality, scales with population size in the United States (US) from 2010 to 2015 and examined whether these scaling patterns vary by city definition, using eight different definitions. Across all city definitions, YLL displayed a sublinear scaling behavior: larger cities...

The Changing Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Individuals and Households in the US

Bouzaghrane, M
Obeid, H
Parker, M
Li,. M
Hayes, D
Chen, M
Frick, K
Rodriguez, D
Walker, Joan
Sengupta, R
Chatman, D
2021

This brief describes findings from a research effort to understand the changing impacts of the pandemic upon households from different places and backgrounds living in the United States. We investigated the effects of the pandemic along with pandemic-based restrictions and rules on people’s behavior along with their mental and emotional health, social relations, and livelihoods. Unlike other research efforts, as far as we are aware this effort is the only one to join passive data from cell phones with survey information collected from the same individuals over time. We combined these data...

Transit Oriented Development: An Appraisal of Trends and Opportunities for Latin America

Rodriguez, Daniel
2021

In recent years, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is increasingly accepted due to its great potential for leading cities towards more sustainable futures. This f ruitful coordination between a city’s investments in mass transit and its land development strategy has enabled better accessibility, increased walkability and mixed land use around transit areas. This technical note reviews TOD at several scales in order to comprehend the trends, opportunities and challenges for its development and implementation, with a focus on yielding lessons for Latin America. First, the document discusses...

Assessing Public Health Benefits of Replacing Freight Trucks with Cargo Cycles in Last Leg Delivery Trips in Urban Centers

Hartle, J
Elrahman, O
Wang, C
Rodriguez, D
Ding, Y
McGahan, M
2022

Increased urbanization, population growth, and demand for time-sensitive deliveries means increased freight movement in cities, which contributes to emissions, noise, and safety concerns. One innovative mode gaining widespread attention for urban deliveries is cargo cycles—bicycles adapted for freight delivery. Despite the recognized potential and possible success of transporting at least 25% of freight via cycle, research remains limited. This research investigates the potential of cargo cycle delivery for last mile freight in Oakland, California, with a focus on the West Oakland...

Post-traumatic stress symptoms in parents of adolescents hospitalized with Anorexia nervosa

Timko, CA
Dennis, NJ
Mears, C
Rodriguez, D
Fitzpatrick, KK
Peebles, R
2022

The current study was a planned secondary analysis to examine post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in parents of youth hospitalized for medical stabilization due to anorexia nervosa (AN). Questionnaires were administered to 47 parents (34 mothers, 13 fathers; 10 parental dyads) after admission; follow-up occurred at discharge and 4 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months post-discharge. PTSS were present in the majority of mothers (55.9%) and fathers (61.5%). PTSS were not associated with illness severity, but were associated with parental report of mood symptoms, avoidance, inflexibility, and...

Health and Environmental Co-Benefits of City Urban Form in Latin America: An Ecological Study

Avila-Palencia, I
Sánchez, BN
Rodríguez
Perez-Ferrer
Miranda, J
Gouveia, N
Bilal, U
Useche, A
Wilches-Mogollon, M
Moore, K
Sarmiento, O
Roux, AV Diez
2022
We investigated the association of urban landscape profiles with health and environmental outcomes, and whether those profiles are linked to environmental and health co-benefits. In this ecological study, we used data from 208 cities in 8 Latin American countries of the SALud URBana en América Latina (SALURBAL) project. Four urban landscape profiles were defined with metrics for the fragmentation, isolation, and shape of patches (contiguous area of urban development). Four environmental measures (lack of greenness, PM2.5, NO2, and carbon footprint), two...

Area under the curve as an alternative to latent growth curve modeling when assessing the effects of predictor variables on repeated measures of a continuous dependent variable

Rodriguez, Daniel
2023
Researchers conducting longitudinal data analysis in psychology and the behavioral sciences have several statistical methods to choose from, most of which either require specialized software to conduct or advanced knowledge of statistical methods to inform the selection of the correct model options (e.g., correlation structure). One simple alternative to conventional longitudinal data analysis methods is to calculate the area under the curve (AUC) from repeated measures and then use this new variable in one’s model. The present study assessed the relative efficacy of two AUC measures: the AUC...

Early Pandemic Behaviors and the Role of Vaccines in Reversing Pandemic Mobility Trends: Evidence from a US Panel

Obeid, H
Anderson, M
Bouzaghrane, MA
Li, M
Parker, M
Hayes, D
Frick, K
Rodriguez, D
Chatman, D
Sengupta, R
Walker, J
2024
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel behavior and resulted in the emergence of new mobility trends. In this paper, we study the degree to which vaccines played a role in reversing pandemic-induced travel behaviors and contributed to a “return to normal.” Using five waves of original U.S.-based survey data combined with passive smartphone tracking data collected in 2020 and 2021, we show that in the early phases of the pandemic, the behavioral response of people in the United States was heterogeneous: individuals with low levels of concern about being infected with COVID-19 engaged in...

Microsimulation Approach to Investigate the Impact of Incorrect Automated Pedestrian Detection on the Operation of Signalized Intersections

Gavric, S
Erdagi, IG
Rodriguez, D
Stevanovic, A
2024
Numerous studies have assessed video detection systems, but automated pedestrian video detection systems (APVDS) have not received as much attention. Although some researchers have evaluated the accuracy of APVDS, none quantified the consequential effects that false or missed pedestrian calls have on critical vehicular and pedestrian performance metrics. To address this gap, this study introduces a microsimulation-based approach to analyze the impact of missed and false pedestrian calls on signalized intersection operation. This method employs simulation inputs that mimic various detection...