Pedestrian safety continues to be an issue in America. Walking is the most dangerous mode of transportation. Last year, almost 5,000 Americans died while crossing the street, walking to school or work, going to a bus stop, or walking to the store, among other normal walking activities. Over the ten-year period from 1994 to 2003, more than 50,000 pedestrians have died on our streets.
These pedestrian safety figures were published in a study called Mean Streets 2004 issued by the The Surface Transportation Policy Project. It shows that not only is walking the most dangerous mode of transportation, but that some areas of the country are becoming worse for pedestrians.
Phoenix, Arizona (or the Census MSA defined as Phoenix-Mesa) made the list of the ten most deadly cities for walkers, coming in at #10.
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1 - Orlando, FL
2 - Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
3 - West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL
4 - Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL
5 - Memphis, TN-AR-MS
6 - Atlanta, GA
7 - Greensboro--Winston-Salem--High Point, NC
8 - Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX
9 - Jacksonville, FL
10 - Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
All of the areas with pedestrian safety challenges have some things in common, according to the study. All of the cities that were the most dangerous for walkers have lower density development (commonly referred to as sprawl), which include wide, high-speed roadways. Most of these cities have also had rapid population growth in the past 50 years when development was designed to facilitate fast moving vehicle traffic, with new growth tending to follow new highways away from the central city.
Senior citizens, African-American and Latino pedestrians have a fatality rate well in excess of the general population, generally because they are less likely to have vehicles and more likely to walk to work or other activities.
Despite a decline in the total number of pedestrian fatalities over the last decade, and even though walking as a share of total trips declined even faster, more than half of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas have become more dangerous. Not the case in Phoenix, though, where at least we are improving. Our pedestrian death statistics improved by 12% over the study done about 10 years ago.
Factoid: Which city had by far the highest number of actual pedestrian deaths in 2003? The New York City metro area, with 377.
