When a Pedestrian or Bicyclist Dies, do the Media cover it, and what do they say?

Crashes between bicyclists/vehicles and pedestrians/vehicles elicit emotions, opinions and values about what ought to be the “best” policy intervention. The details, reports, accusations and opinions expressed surrounding crashes shape the policy narrative that defines the event.

Several instruments, or policy tools, can be utilized to create healthy, livable transportation environments that support the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians along with motorists. However, in the policy decision-making realm, narratives and the underlying values become intertwined with facts to influence problem definition and produce an emphasis on certain types of tools to address safety. Thus, casting bicyclists and pedestrians as “guilty-victims” may suggest a propensity to select one set of policy tools and this may be different than the policy tools selected if the target population is cast as “innocent victims.” Policy narratives spread through different media sources such as television, print, and social media. The study uses hypothesis tests to compare variables of interest (especially bicyclist versus pedestrian) under different population proportions to investigate if any differences exist. The researchers also estimate logistic regression models that characterize the likelihood of classification as a victim, likelihood of policy change and likelihood of infrastructure change. Overall, neither bicyclist nor pedestrian crashes regularly appear in media accounts; however, the media reporting of pedestrian crashes occurs significantly more often as a proportion of total fatal crashes than bicyclist crashes.  The logistic regression results also indicate that age, being a pedestrian and being a female in a crash have a positive relationship with the likelihood of characterized as a victim.  The probability of policy change also has a negative relationship with crash reporting rate and a conservative political culture. For the third model, only population appears to influence the likelihood of infrastructure change.