The separated streetcar line on St. Clair Ave. may have caused endless headaches during its five years of construction, but a new study claims your safety is much better off for it. Pedestrians are now just half as likely to be hit by a vehicle along the route, according to analysis from the Hospital for Sick Children.

The study, published in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention, concludes there was “a 48 per cent decrease in the rate of these collisions after the dedicated streetcar lane was installed,” and notes a particularly sharp drop in collisions involving children.

The numbers were crunched by Dr. Andrew Howard, an orthopedic surgeon who has a strong motivation for seeing fewer pedestrian injuries — particularly for kids, though all age groups were included in the study. “Children hurt themselves in all kinds of ways, but the ones that are most life-altering and difficult … the really nasty ones, are these pedestrian-motor vehicle accidents,” Howard said.

Howard is part of a hospital research unit that specializes in analyzing Toronto traffic safety data. This study looked at 153 reported pedestrian-vehicle collisions along the route between January 2000 and December 2011, and broke them down into categories including age group, reported injury severity, and location. Howard said they used a model that controlled for seasonal factors and the periods of construction along the line, which was built in segments between 2005 and 2010.

The reduction in collisions was largely attributed to pedestrians now being forced to cross traffic at intersections with signals, rather than walking into the middle of the street to board streetcars. Another factor is vehicles being blocked from turning left except at major intersections, Howard said.

The study acknowledges many limitations. It estimates that only a quarter of pedestrian-vehicle collisions are reported to police, with minor ones often going undocumented. The model also did not take into account changed traffic volumes on St. Clair after construction.

Howard said he hopes to see more research done on how the design of streets affects the safety of those walking and cycling.

“We don’t want to be in a city where we pay a safety penalty for walking,” he said. “We have been reducing the risk to people in motor vehicles for decades, but we haven’t made similar gains in reducing it for pedestrians and cyclists.”