Statistical Analysis of New Orleans
1999-2006 Crash Data
 
 
 
UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS
  State Project No. 737-99-0762
 

 
 
 
 
July 2009 • New Orleans, Louisiana
 
 

A Project of the
Regional Planning Commission and the
Louisiana Department of Transportation and
Development
State Project No. 737‐99‐0762 
Funding  for  this  evaluation  was  provided  by  the  Louisiana  Department  of 
Transportation  and  Development  Highway  Safety  Department  through  a 
grant  to  the  Regional  Planning  Commission  for  Jefferson,  Orleans, 
Plaquemines,  St.  Bernard  and  St.  Tammany  Parishes  for  the  Greater  New 
Orleans Pedestrian and Bicycle Program. The evaluation was accomplished 
by the University of New Orleans Pedestrian and Bicycle Resource Initiative 
under the auspices of the New Orleans Regional Planning Commission. 
 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Vehicular and pedestrian crash data are collected by the police agencies of parishes and
municipalities in the New Orleans metropolitan region, and are available from the years
1999 to 2006. These data are provided in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (.xls) and
Microsoft Access database (.mdb) formats.

DISCREPANCIES  
The data collected from the years of 1999 to 2002 are available in spreadsheet format and
lack many of the characteristics that the Access data collected from the years of 2003 to
2006 contain. For instance, many of the data “fields” available in the latter set give
specific demographic information about the drivers available in each collision, such as
age, race, and gender. This is missing from the 1999-2002 set, and thus the 2003-2006
data will be treated in more detail.

METHOD OF ANALYSIS 
ESRI’s ArcGIS software was used to analyze the frequency of certain characteristics
contained within the 2003-2006 crash data. Instructions on how to prepare and analyze
these data are available in PBRI’s Guidebook to Comprehending and Organizing
Pedestrian Bicycle Crash Data in the New Orleans Metropolitan Region.

2. ANALYSIS OF CYCLIST COLLISIONS 
As mentioned in the introduction, the 1999-2002 dataset is missing demographic data,
and therefore only the 2003-2006 dataset will be analyzed in this section. Between these
years, there were a total of 1340 collisions involving bicycles.
 
Age of all cyclists involved in collisions. 
The table to the left displays the age of 
bicyclists involved in a collision along the 
x‐axis and the occurrence of collisions 
along the y‐axis. The mean age of a 
bicyclist involved in a collision is 28 years 
old.  

There is an evident spike in collision events involving bicyclists between the ages of 9
and 17, with 12 to 14 year old cyclists being the most frequently involved in collisions of
all age groups. Another lesser spike occurs in the 42 to 48 year old range. The mean age
of 28 is in fact contained in the most underrepresented age group of individuals involved
in bicycle collisions. The mean is both positively and negatively affected. The high-
frequency groups are adolescents and late-middle-aged adults; cyclists in their late
twenties and early thirties are less frequently involved in collisions.  
 
 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF NEW ORLEANS 1999‐2006 CRASH DATA  

RACE OF CYCLISTS INVOLVED IN COLLISIONS BY PARISH 
 
REGIONWIDE; TOTAL: 1215 
These tables take into account only bicycle
RACE  CRASHES % TOTAL
crash incidents with race reported, which
Black 635 52% accounts for 1215 of the 1340 bicycle
White 532 43% collision incidents reported between the
‘Other’ 47 3% years of 2003 and 2006. The percentage
ORLEANS; TOTAL: 624  results are rounded to the nearest number.
Black 414 66%
White 192 31%
‘Other’ 18 2%
JEFFERSON; TOTAL: 428 
Black 181 42%
White 226 53%
‘Other’ 21 5%
ST. TAMMANY; TOTAL: 100 
Black 26 26%
White 70 70%
Other 4 4%
ST. BERNARD; TOTAL: 52 
Black 13 25%
White 37 71%
Other 2 3%
PLAQUEMINES; TOTAL: 11 
Black 1 9%
White 7 63%
Other 2 18%
 
 
AGE, RACE, AND GENDER 
 
 
Age of black cyclists involved in collisions.
The chart to the left displays age along the x‐
axis and frequency along the y‐axis. The 
characteristics of bicycle collisions involving 
black cyclists greatly resemble that of the 
overall trends, with a mean age of 27 years 
old. A greater frequency of collisions occurs 
  in slightly younger age groups than the 
 
overall average, however. 
 
 

2|Page
 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF NEW ORLEANS 1999‐2006 CRASH DATA  

Age of white cyclists involved in

collisions. The mean age of white cyclists
involved in collisions is 32, and the 9 to 11
years-old age group is proportionately less
likely to be involved in collisions than
black cyclists of the same age. There is,
however, a greater likelihood of white
cyclists in their late 20s to be involved in
collisions than black cyclists of the same  
 
age.
 
 
Age of males involved in bicycle collisions.
Given that crashes involving male cyclists
represent the overwhelming majority of
incidents, the

 
Age of females involved in bicycle
collisions. One noticeable difference
between the male and female statistics is
the higher proportion of females between
the ages of 21 and 27 involved in
collisions.
 
 
The 1999‐2002 dataset provides crash data for the parishes of St. Charles and St. John 
whereas the 2003‐2006 dataset does not, so the number of crash incidents for those 
parishes only reflect the years of 1999 to 2002.  
 
CRASH INCIDENTS BY PARISH; TOTAL*: 1753 
PARISH  # OF CRASHES  % OF TOTAL 
Orleans  938  54% 
Jefferson  598  34% 
St. Bernard  79  4% 
St. Tammany   126  7% 
Plaquemines  12  .6% 
St. Charles  9  N/A 
St. John  5  N/A 
*The total does not include the Parishes of St. Charles and St. John. 
 
 

3|Page
 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF NEW ORLEANS 1999‐2006 CRASH DATA  

 
3. ANALYSIS OF PEDESTRIAN COLLISIONS 
Like the bicycle data, the pedestrian data presented here was collected from the years 
of 2003 to 2006. 
 
Age of pedestrians involved in collisions.
There is an overall trend for collisions to occur
less frequently among older age groups
following the 3 to 6 year old age range, with a
noticeable increase of occurrences involving
37 to 49 year old pedestrians that somewhat
offsets this trend.
 
 
Pedestrian crash incidents by day. DAY CRASHES  % CRASHES
The chart to the right shows 2841 MONDAY 399  14%
collision incidents involving TUESDAY 363  13%
pedestrians broken down by day. WEDNESDAY 422  15%
THURSDAY 404  14%
FRIDAY 495  17%
SATURDAY 380  13%
SUNDAY 378  13%
 
SEX  CRASHES  % CRASHES  Pedestrian crash incidents by sex.
MALE  1641  58% Collision incidents involving pedestrians,
FEMALE  1050  37% Broken down by sex.
 
PEDESTRIAN CRASHES BY PARISH; 2841 TOTAL 
PARISH  CRASHES  % CRASHES 
ORLEANS  1873  66% 
JEFFERSON  719  38% 
PLAQUEMINES  13  .4% 
ST. BERNARD  70  2% 
ST. TAMMANY  166  6% 
 

4|Page