Improving road safety to tackle crime

Improving road safety in cities could result in a lower rate of violent crime, according to research from UCL, after expert analysis of crime and car accident data in Mexico City found a surprisingly high level of synchronicity between the two. The Heartbeat of the City study, which looked at a the relationship between the two across a weekly cycle, suggests that applying more resources to prevent road accidents would improve crime rates by enabling more efficient policing. For the paper, published in a Cities as Complex Systems special issue in PLOS ONE, experts plotted the time and locations of nearly one million car accidents and 200,000 violent crimes from January 2016 to March 2020 in Mexico City, creating a 'heartbeat' - so-called because of its resemblance to an electrocardiogram - of the city. The pattern of crash and crime occurrences were similar day by day, repeating on the weekly cycle, the concept of which had previously been unexplored. Experts observed 'valleys' during the night and peaks in the evening, where at a city level, crime peaked at 7.5 times more than in the depth of valleys, and car accidents peaked at 12.3 times. Lead author Dr Rafael Prieto Curiel (UCL CASA) explained: "Distinct parts of the city have different heartbeats in terms of crime and of crashes. A neighbourhood with bars and restaurants has a different heartbeat than a residential neighbourhood or one with offices or schools.