A new study from Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, Dangerous by Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Death (and Making Great Neighborhoods), ranks metropolitan areas based on the relative danger of walking and Orlando tops the list nation-wide.
Utilizing a Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI) in order to establish a level playing field for comparing metropolitan areas based on the danger to pedestrians, cities were ranked based on the rate of pedestrian deaths relative to the amount of walking residents do on average.
Four cities in Florida out of ten across America were found to be the most dangerous in the US for walking in 2007-2008. Following Orlando, the other cities are Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville. The remaining six cities are: Memphis, Raleigh, Louisville, Houston, Birmingham and Atlanta.
Orlando tops the list because of its high pedestrian fatality rate of 2.9 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents, despite a very low proportion of residents walking to work, only 1.3 percent. In other words, the few people who do walk in Orlando face a relatively high risk of being killed by traffic.
The Study noted that every year, nearly 5,000 Americans die preventable deaths on roads that fail to provide safe conditions for pedestrians. This decade alone, more than 43,000 Americans – including 3,906 children under 16 – have been killed while walking or crossing a street in our communities.
According to the Study, with more than 76,000 Americans dying in the last 15 years, it’s the equivalent of a jumbo jet going down roughly every month, yet it receives nothing like that kind of attention.
While noting that many communities have succeeded at making walking safer through investments in pedestrian infrastructure, at the state and local levels, no state spends more than 5 percent of federal transportation funds on sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic calming, speed humps, multi-use paths, or safety programs for pedestrians or cyclists.
The 52 largest metro areas averaged annual spending of federal funds on bicycle and pedestrian projects of just $1.39 per person. The average metro area spends 2.2 percent of their federal transportation funds on projects to improve conditions for walking and bicycling.
The Study concludes that now is the time for Congress to act as it is currently considering the goals and objectives for a federal transportation bill that will send transportation money to states and cities and guide their spending priorities.
The continued high fatality rate shows a clear need for strong leadership and greater resources to end preventable pedestrian deaths and require more accountability from states on how those funds are spent, the Study noted.
Source:t4america.org
