Does Transit-Oriented Development Create a Bicycle and Pedestrian Safe Environment?

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has been a popular planning tool within urban transportation and land use planning. TOD projects are often touted as being designed to promote bicycle and pedestrian trips and activities. However, bicycle and pedestrian friendly environments cannot be created without the guarantee of bicycle and pedestrian safety. There has been lack of research addressing whether TOD stations provide a safe environment for cyclists and pedestrians. The goal of this research is to determine whether or not the development of these TOD projects across Los Angeles County have had an effect on bike and pedestrian collisions. Applying a longitudinal regression approach, this research analyzes historical trends of bicycle and pedestrian collisions before and after TOD project implementation along LA Metro Rail, comparing bicycle and pedestrian collisions around non-TOD stations. The outputs of this study suggest that TOD implementation contributes to the increase of bicycle and pedestrian collisions, particularly bicycle collisions, rather than reducing bicycle and pedestrian collisions.