A data analysis on road accidents involving pedestrians in urban areas

In 2010, UN set the goal of halving the global number of road deaths by 2020. In Italy, over the period 2011–2021, this number fell by only 26%. Therefore, with the National Road Safety Plan (PNSS) 2030, Italy has set the new goal of reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030, in particular by increasing the safety of the most vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. In line with national goals, and considering that 77% of accidents occurs in urban areas, this study proposes an analysis of pedestrian accidents that occur on Italian urban roads. The goal is to extract the most significant elements concerning the users involved, the dynamics of the accident, and the reference context, in order to identify policies and strategies aimed at reducing the number of fatal pedestrian accidents. The analysis is based on ISTAT 2021 data on national urban road accidents involving pedestrians. The data is analyzed using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) combined with hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). The correlations among the accidents and the socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics of the users involved and the temporal characteristics are analyzed in order to support political decision-makers in defining ad hoc measures.