Street Safety & Public Space Impact

Overview

This visualisation explores how street design decisions shape safety outcomes in public space. Using open mobility and collision datasets, it maps patterns across time and geography — revealing where design choices correlate with higher collision rates and worse outcomes.

Methodology

Collision records were matched to street segments using spatial joins. Street design features — lane widths, speed limits, pedestrian infrastructure — were sourced from open infrastructure datasets and linked to collision outcomes using Python. The resulting map was built with Mapbox.

Findings

Streets with narrower lanes and lower speed limits show consistently better safety outcomes, independent of traffic volume — supporting the evidence base for slower, narrower street design.

Takeaways

Open safety datasets provide compelling evidence for street design reform. Visualising the data in context makes the argument concrete and accessible to a non-specialist audience.