Fuzzy analysis of students’ perception of traffic safety in school environments: the case of a small Brazilian city

Abstract

Thousands of lives are lost every year due to traffic accidents worldwide, and youths are the most affected. The goal of this paper is to analyze the differences in young students’ perceptions about traffic safety in school surroundings in order to help in the formulation of public policies and the development of infrastructure to make school travels safer. A questionnaire was used to obtain the perception of high school students from institutions with different urban characteristics. Data modelling with fuzzy logic and statistical analysis of variance indicated that students’ perceptions are influenced by the different realities these youths are exposed to daily, such as school socioeconomic category, transport mode, urban environment and gender. Traffic engineering measures, public policies and road safety education action, inciting active mobility, can be validated and supported by these results. This road safety analysis may also be a participative alternative for locations with low data access.

Keywords:

• Youngsters
• fuzzy analysis of variance
• small city
• urban environment
• traffic safety

Acknowledgments

Authors want to thank staff and students from schools that participated in the study. The authors are indebted to the referees for their comments that improved the substance and readability of the paper. Letícia Oestreich thanks the CAPES for the support provided by the postgraduate research scholarship 88887.522083/2020-00. Alejandro Ruiz-Padillo thanks the CNpq for the support provided by the research grants 308870/2018-2 and 422635/2018-9.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).