Pedestrian safety in proximity to schools is a major concern of transportation authorities, local governments, and residents. In fact, several countermeasures (e.g., school-zone speed limits) are usually in place around schools to provide a safer environment, especially for school-age children. Two questions arise here: (i) are transportation facilities in proximity to schools truly safer than other facilities given a variety of implemented road safety interventions around schools? and (ii) how can we answer the previous question properly using a reliable approach that accounts for possible confounding? While previous literature has mixed results and does not provide clear methodological/empirical guidelines in this regard, we propose an approach that answers the above questions. We illustrate our method on a sample of intersections in Montreal, Canada. Specifically, to underpin a causal interpretation, for the first time in the extent of transportation literature, we develop a heterogeneous endogenous econometric model that estimates the causal effect of proximity to school on pedestrian safety, addressing a complex endogenous relationship between the two. Various built environment, traffic exposure, and road geometric/operational characteristics are considered. The results indicate that if endogeneity is not accounted for, the effect of proximity to school is underestimated, while not being significant at a 5% level of significance. However, after accounting for confounding factors, the proposed endogenous model indicates that proximity to school deteriorates pedestrian safety. Therefore, traffic safety countermeasures and policies in place (if any) during the study period have not been sufficient and/or effective in improving pedestrian safety at intersections near schools. Our heterogeneity in mean and variance formulation provided more insights. For example, we found that, interestingly, as pedestrian volume increases at intersections around schools, the adverse effect of proximity to school on pedestrian safety decreases, a possibility not previously explored in the extent of road safety literature, confirming a strong safety-in-numbers effect.

学校附近的行人安全是交通部门，地方政府和居民的主要关注点。实际上，学校周围通常会采取一些对策（例如，学区限速），以提供更安全的环境，尤其是对学龄儿童而言。这里出现两个问题：（i）考虑到学校周围已实施的各种道路安全干预措施，学校附近的交通设施真的比其他设施真正安全吗？（ii）我们如何使用可靠的方法正确地回答上一个问题，以解决可能的混淆？尽管以前的文献得出的结果参差不齐，并且在这方面没有提供明确的方法/经验指导，但我们提出了一种可以回答上述问题的方法。我们在蒙特利尔的一个交叉路口样本中说明了我们的方法，加拿大。具体而言，为了在运输文献范围内首次建立因果关系的解释，我们开发了一种异构的内生经济计量模型，该模型可估算接近学校对行人安全的因果关系，解决了两者之间的复杂内生关系。考虑了各种建筑环境，交通风险以及道路几何/运营特征。结果表明，如果不考虑内生性，则接近学校的影响被低估了，而在5％的显着性水平上却不显着。但是，考虑到混杂因素后，建议的内生模型表明靠近学校会使行人安全恶化。因此，研究期间制定的交通安全对策和政策（如果有）在改善学校附近十字路口的行人安全方面还不够充分和/或有效。我们在均值和方差表述中的异质性提供了更多的见解。例如，我们发现，有趣的是，随着学校周围交叉路口的行人流量增加，靠近学校对行人安全的不利影响减小了，这在道路安全文献中从未有过探索，这证实了强大的安全性数字效果。