Factor analysis of community-ranked built environment factors contributing to pedestrian injury risk in Kampala city, Uganda

BACKGROUND: Examining community perspective on an issue is not only a key consideration in research on road safety but also on other topics. There is substantial theoretical and empirical knowledge on built environment factors that contribute to pedestrian injury but how the community views these factors is least studied and constitutes the focus of this study. Our study investigated how respondents ranked the relative importance of selected built environment factors that contribute to pedestrian injury risk in Kampala city, Uganda and examined the underlying pattern behind the rankings. METHODS: Eight hundred and fifty-one pedestrians selected from 14 different road sections in Kampala city were asked to rank each of the 27 built environment variables on a 4-point Likert scale. Point score analysis was used to calculate scores for the different built environment variables and rank them in order of perceived contribution while factor analysis was used to determine the pattern underlying the responses. RESULTS: Factor analysis isolated two factors that explained 92% of the variation in respondents’ rankings: ‘road adjacent trip generators and attractors’ and ‘structure of traffic flows’. This finding implies that pedestrians in Kampala city perceived trip generators and attractors adjacent to the road and the structure of traffic flows as major explanations of the influence of the built environment on pedestrian injury risk. CONCLUSION: While these rankings and factors identified may not necessarily equate to actual risk, they are important in providing an understanding of pedestrian injury risk from the perspective of the community.