T4 America Report Highlights Pedestrian Safety Over Past Decade

Transportation For America (T4 America) recently released their 2011 pedestrian safety report, Dangerous By Design 2011, which examines the problem of and offers solutions for the epidemic of preventable pedestrian deaths on our nation's streets. From 2000-2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed and 688,000 were injured while traversing the country's roadway network. Given these statistics, the report asserts that the decades-long neglect of pedestrian safety in the design and use of America's streets is taking a heavy toll on our lives. Pedestrian deaths in the U.S. over the past decade are equivalent to a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing every month for the past ten years. The 688,000 injuries over this same period of time equate to a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle every seven minutes.

Nationwide, pedestrians account for nearly 12% of total traffic deaths, though state DOT's have allocated only 1.5% of available federal funds to projects that retrofit dangerous roads or create safe alternatives. In the nation's 15 largest metropolitan areas, pedestrian fatalities have actually increased over the past decade, even as overall traffic deaths fell. Children, older adults, and racial/ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in these fatal statistics, but people of all ages and walks of life have been struck down in the simple act of walking.

The lack of federal funding dedicated to pedestrian improvements is mainly due to the perception that pedestrian safety is a local issue, even though 67% of the 47,700 pedestrian deaths over the past decade occurred on federal-aid roadways, major roadways eligible for federal funding for construction/improvements, and under federal guidelines for design. The majority of pedestrian deaths in the past decade share a common theme: though labeled as "accidents", they occurred along arterial roadways that were dangerous by design. These streets were engineered for speeding traffic with little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs, or on bicycles.

Dangerous by Design 2011 also includes a ranking of the 52 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. and how dangerous they are to pedestrians. The Orlando-Kissimmee, Florida metro area is considered the most dangerous, and three other Sunshine State metro areas are in the top five. The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro area is ranked 39 out of 52, in addition to having 3.8% of its population walking to work. Correspondingly, T4 America developed an interactive map to document the location of all pedestrian fatalities from 2001 to 2009.

T4 America makes several recommendations for provisions in the next Surfact Transportation Authorization bill to improve nationwide pedestrian safety along roadways. These recommendations include: retaining dedicated federal funding for safety of people on bicycle or foot (such as Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements), adoption of a national complete streets policy, filling in strategic gaps in the pedestrian network, committing a fair share of federal funding to pedestrian safety, and holding states accountable for creating communities that are safe for walking.

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