Grant: Project Grant

Background: Active travel is a healthy, environmentally friendly transport mode. Electric mobility devices (e-mobility devices), such as e-bikes or e-scooters, are a rapidly increasing transport mode. People who commute by walking, biking or e-mobility device are vulnerable road users who lack the protective shell of a vehicle putting them at risk of serious injury in event of a collision or fall. The proposed Circumstances of Active Transport Injuries study will generate evidence for city and provincial transportation planners and traffic policy makers to inform prevention measures. Our objectives are: 1) Describe the circumstances of traffic injuries involving cyclists, pedestrians or e-mobility users. Describe the associated road type and infrastructure and the injuries they sustained; 2) Identify sidewalk/street/road features associated with severe injuries. Methods: We will recruit 5000 injured pedestrians, cyclists, e-bicycle users, e-scooter users and other e-mobility device users from four Canadian cities. We will ask how their injury occurred, where it happened, the type of road and whether it involved specific infrastructure for pedestrians (e.g. a crosswalk) or cyclists (e.g. a bicycle path). For e-mobility users, we will note whether they were using pedestrian or cycling facilities. Events will be mapped using Google maps and Google StreetView. We will review emergency department charts to find what injuries they had and whether they required hospital admission. We will analyze this data to find why some events resulted in more severe injuries and needed hospital admission. Knowledge translation: We will share our findings with injury prevention and road safety organizations, provincial ministries of transportation and municipal traffic planners. We hope they will use this information to guide injury prevention efforts.