Mapping risk factors, methodologies, and gaps in pedestrian safety research from low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review

Pedestrian safety remains a significant public health concern in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), where rapid motorization, heterogeneous traffic, inadequate pedestrian infrastructure, and institutional constraints increase crash risk. Despite growing scholarly attention, literature remains dispersed across diverse methodologies, geography, and analytical perspectives, limiting a consolidated understanding of research progress and priority gaps. A comprehensive synthesis is therefore necessary to map the evolution, scope, and methodological characteristics of pedestrian safety research in LMICs. This scoping review synthesizes evidence from 94 Peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2024 and retrieved from Web of Science, Taylor & Francis, ScienceDirect, and Scopus. The review followed PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Descriptive and bibliometric analyses assessed publication trends, geographic contributions, study settings, and research domains. Structured content-based analysis and descriptive evidence-mapping approach classified studies into major research domains based on objectives, methods, and contextual focus. Publications have grown substantially over the past decade, with India emerging as a leading contributor. Research is predominantly concentrated in urban environments, while rural corridors receive comparatively limited analytical attention. The literature spans several domains, including national-level assessments, rural corridor safety, child safety, spatial analyses, behavioral investigations, and statistical and machine-learning modeling. Despite this diversification, several structural gaps persist, including limited exposure-based and road-type-sensitive modeling, inadequate integration of child-specific vulnerability within spatial frameworks, weak longitudinal evaluation of infrastructure interventions, and continued reliance on police-reported crash data with limited cross-sectoral linkage. Collectively, the evidence base remains fragmented and geographically concentrated, constraining the development of transferable, context-sensitive pedestrian safety strategies across LMICs. Advancing pedestrian safety in LMICs requires multidisciplinary, context-sensitive approaches integrating infrastructure design, speed management, enforcement, behavioral strategies, and improved crash data systems. By mapping research domains and identifying structural limitations in the existing evidence base, this study provides a strategic framework for advancing pedestrian safety research across LMICs. • Scoping review of 94 studies on pedestrian safety in LMICs (2000-2024). • India is the leading contributor, with research dominated by urban settings. • Rural high-speed roads in LMICs remain underexplored despite high pedestrian risk. • Research clustered into risk factors, spatial analysis, behavior, and modeling. • Urgent need for multidisciplinary strategies to address pedestrian safety in LMICs.