Perils of walking in USA increase
Study: Pedestrians die in greater numbers than terrorism, war fatalities
Pedestrian fatalities in the USA have skyrocketed 46% since 2009, creating a public health crisis as researchers try to understand the reasons.
The increases far outpace hikes in other traffic-related deaths, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Almost 6,000 pedestrians — people who might have been out for a walk after dinner, hurrying to get to work or rushing to cross a street — were killed by motor vehicles on or along America’s roads in 2016, the latest year for which numbers are available. That’s almost twice the number of deaths tied directly to the 9/11 terrorist at-
tacks, and more Americans have died as they walked than died in combat in Iraq each year since 2003.
Distraction behind the wheel, texting while walking and even marijuana legalization have been tagged as potential culprits in research.
SUV factor
A study released Tuesday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests at least part of the blame rests with Americans’ increasing love of SUVs. The study shows an 81% increase in the number of SUVs involved in single-vehicle pedestrian fatalities from 2009 to 2016.
SUVs have overtaken passenger cars in new-vehicle sales, and automakers are shifting their production plans — Ford announced it was dropping most of its passenger car lines in the USA. The implications for America’s most vulnerable road users, pedestrians, could be stark.
David Harkey, Insurance Institute president, said one reason SUVs have an outsized impact on pedestrian fatalities has to do with their design.
“SUVs have higher front ends, and often the design for the vehicle is much more vertical than passenger cars,” Harkey said. “We do think that the number of SUVs on the roadways now and the size of the vehicles is playing some role.”
Pedestrian fatalities reached 5,987 in 2016, the highest level since George H.W. Bush was in the White House.
Nationally, more pedestrians die in collisions when they are crossing at points other than intersections along busy arterial roads. More of those fatalities occur at night and involve males. Many of the crashes involve alcohol, though federal safety researchers said that does not explain the increase. In 2016, pedestrians accounted for 16% of traffic deaths; in 2007, that figure was 11%, according to the NHTSA.
“There’s a lot of unknowns in this space right now,” said Jana Lynott, a senior strategic policy adviser with the AARP Public Policy Institute.
The crisis is felt most keenly in America’s cities. The highest rankings in 2016 among cities with more than 200,000 people were not just in older industrial centers such as St. Louis and Newark but also in Sun Belt cities such as Phoenix, Baton Rouge and Miami.
In Detroit, which had the highest rate among larger cities, nearly a quarter of the 118 people who died in traffic crashes in 2016 were pedestrians. De- spite its ranking, the city saw improvement in its fatality numbers in 2016, which dropped after 65,000 streetlights were installed over a three-year period. Officials hope an aggressive sidewalk improvement plan — the city intends to replace 125,000 sidewalk slabs in the next few years — keeps more pedestrians out of the street.
The NHTSA began a major examination into the effect of personal electronic device usage on pedestrian deaths. That process could help clarify the role that distraction, particularly connected to cellphone use, plays in pedestrian fatalities. The NHTSA said no studies show “a direct link between the behavioral effects of distraction and pedestrian crash risk,” but distraction-affected motor vehicle crashes lead to many deaths and injuries.
The Governors Highway Safety Association suggested this year that marijuana legalization could be one reason for the rise, noting that in Washington, D.C., and seven states that in 2012 to
2016 voted to legalize recreational pot use, pedestrian fatalities increased
16.4% for the first half of last year, while other states saw a decline.
Urban action
In 2017, 101 pedestrians were killed in New York City, the lowest the number has been since the city began keeping that statistic in 1910. The number has dropped 45% since Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was elected in 2014, implemented a strategy called Vision Zero, a multiagency effort that uses engineering, education and enforcement. There were 184 pedestrian deaths in 2013.
The city redesigned roadways, installing plastic lane bollards to prevent drivers from making sudden, sharp left turns and tweaking “walk/don’t walk” signs to change before the traffic lights do to give pedestrians several extra sec- onds of crossing time.
Officials lowered the city’s default speed limit from 30 mph to 25. Queens Boulevard, a 12-lane road in the eponymous borough, had been nicknamed the Boulevard of Death for the 185 deaths there, 138 of them pedestrians, since
1990. In 2015 and 2016, the number was zero.
The city has spent more than $700 million since 2014 and has $1.6 billion allocated to use through the summer of
2022, according to the New York City Department of Transportation.
In Los Angeles, crosswalks were made more visible to drivers. Some got bold white stripes like the one on the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album.
“If we can design our streets to protect our most vulnerable users, we can create a better environment for everybody,” said Nat Gale, program manager for Los Angeles’ Vision Zero program. “What we find is our walkers are overrepresented. They represent 15% of traffic collisions but half of deaths.”
The city has more “scramble crosswalks,” where intersections are closed to cars entirely so pedestrians can cross however they’d like, including diagonally. One is at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, the intersection next to the theater where the Academy Awards are held.
Honolulu, which had seven pedestrian deaths in 2016, is among the cities that passed laws against walking and texting when crossing streets.
The law, however, has been in a warning phase. Since it was enacted, there have been 88 violations.