Safety plan aims to reduce mishaps involving pedestrians

Ten ‘hot spots’ of incidents identified

Census data shows Pittsburgh has one of highest rates in the country of people who commute by walking.

But that also means the city has more traffic accidents involving pedestrians than it should, so walkers are potentially in danger every time they head to or from work or school.

In an effort to keep everyone safe, the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure has completed its first Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, which identifies the most dangerous walking areas and calls for studies to recommend improvements. The department held an online event Wednesday attended by more than 70 people to unveil the plan, which was started more than two years ago but was delayed by the pandemic.

Director Karina Ricks said the DOMI study is particularly important now because fatal pedestrian accidents have increased by about 53% nationally over the past 10 years, including last year when Americans drove substantially fewer miles due to the pandemic. She noted that 77% of pedestrians struck by vehicles traveling 40 mph die and motorists “routinely” drive at least that fast on neighborhood streets with speed limits of 25 mph.

The 86-page report, developed with engineering consultant VHB, analyzed accident data from 2013 to 2017 to identify 10 “hot spots,” the most dangerous areas for pedestrians in the city. Four of them are in Downtown: Liberty, Penn, and Sixth avenues and Grant Street. The others are Fifth Avenue in Oakland; East Ohio Street on the North Side; Forbes Avenue is Squirrel Hill; Centre Avenue in Shadyside; Liberty Avenue in the Strip District and East Carson Street on the South Side.

Overall, those sites were the locations of 13% of the pedestrian accidents during that five-year period. The study found many of those accidents occurred during weekday business hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., although more serious accidents take place after dark; happened at intersections with marked crosswalks and signals; and involved vehicles making turns.

In addition to those hot spots, the study recommends the city do more work to identify: highrisk corridors; busy streets that lack pedestrian needs like sidewalks and crosswalks; and business districts with frequent transit service, which traditionally have higher pedestrian accident rates. It calls for the city to identify three areas a year for 10 years to conduct road safety audits; five areas a year for 10 years to conduct walkability audits; earmark part of the city’s capital budget each year to address problem areas for pedestrians; and work with other departments and agencies to include pedestrian safety measures in already-scheduled improvement projects.

The goal is to reduce accidents and make sure all residents are within a 20-minute walk to get fresh fruits and vegetables. As John Tague, who uses a wheelchair and served as an adviser for the study, put it, “The overall

philosophy is pedestrians first.”

Other recommendations include installing lower pedestrian lighting at key crosswalks; creating a sidewalk program to fill gaps; work with neighborhood groups to improve pedestrian and driver education; and improve enforcement of traffic laws in high-danger areas.

In some cases, such as East Carson, the state Department of Transportation already is in the process of making improvements such as pedestrian- level street lights, new traffic lights and bump outs at intersections to reduce the distance to cross streets.