Many opportunities for outdoor play are limited for urban children due to safety concerns and hazardous street contitions, according to a new traffic safety and health outcomes data brief compiled by Healthi Kids. For instance, Rochester children have a motor vehicle accident treat and release rate that is almost twice as high as the Monroe County Average, local data reveal. Efforts to improve hazardous streets, traffic barriers and signage, and efforts to clear abandoned buildings and graffiti have helped increase the likelihood of kids being able to walk, play and bike outside.
Find out more about this issue in the Healthi Kids (2015) Walkability Report, which looks at street design interventions including speed limit changes, added signage, restriped crosswalks, vacant lot security and sidewalk repair as steps that may improve health outcomes.
The new data brief on traffic safety is one of several data briefs to be released by Healthi Kids. There is also a brief on the state of play in Rochester, NY, neighborhoods; the link between health outcomes and perceptions of safety; the link between race, poverty and inequity; and the link between health disparities and childhood obesity.
