Urban road crashes, spatial justice, and geospatial analysis: a systematic review of empirical studies, 2016-2025
A systematic review of empirical studies, 2016-2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20983/decumanus.2026.1.8Keywords:
Road Crashes, Spatial Justice, Right to Mobility, Geospatial AnalysisAbstract
This article systematically reviews the literature (2016–2025) on urban road traffic crashes, with an emphasis on GIS, spatial analysis, and modelling approaches used to explain the territorial distribution of risk through the lenses of spatial justice and the right to mobility. Following PRISMA 2020, publications were retrieved from ScienceDirect, Redalyc, and Google Scholar; the search strategy was iteratively refined to exclude biomedical strands and crash/vehicle engineering research. After screening, duplication, and full-text eligibility assessment, a final corpus of 71 articles was included for qualitative synthesis. Evidence was organized into four analytical strands: (i) frameworks of justice, accessibility, and inequality; (ii) exploratory and spatiotemporal geospatial analysis (KDE/NKDE, Gi*, Moran/LISA); (iii) crash frequency and severity modelling (Poisson/NB and extensions, Tweedie, hierarchical approaches) with explicit attention to exposure denominators; and (iv) machine learning and interpretability, alongside locally weighted methods to capture intra-urban heterogeneity. Results indicate a methodological convergence that combines exploratory mapping, exposure control, and modelling to inform intervention prioritization; however, persistent gaps remain regarding multimodal exposure measurement, spatial validation, cross-study comparability, and equity-oriented impact evaluation. The article advances an applied agenda to close the evidence–decision–evaluation cycle and to make inferences auditable for urban road safety governance.
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