In 1999 a bill was introduced in the California state legislature that proposed dedicating $20 million a year toward making it safer for children to walk and bike to school. Even though the funding represented less than one-tenth of one percent of all transportation spending in California, the legislation, dubbed the "Safe Routes to School bill," immediately drew fire from transportation officials. Critics said that it was nothing more than a "feel good program," that no need had been demonstrated for these kinds of projects, and that an existing $1million statewide account available for bicycle lanes was more than enough money to fix the problem.

The bill was eventually signed into law due to strong public support. Once unveiled, the program was overwhelmed by more than 700 applications totaling over $130 million competing for the $20 million pot of funding. But for many, the disagreement over the bill illustrated the disconnect between transportation officials and a growing number of citizens, school officials, public health professionals, planners and engineers who have been trying to make the case that much more needs to be done to make California’s streets safer for everyone.

They say crossing the street has become far too hazardous an activity, and that fast-moving traffic is diminishing quality of life in neighborhoods. They point to policies that have only exacerbated the problem by widening streets, increasing speed limits, removing crosswalks and enacting laws that give vehicles the advantage – such as allowing right turns on a red light. At the same time, rapid suburbanization has dramatically increased traffic and spread development patterns ever further apart so that stores, homes, schools and other destinations are no longer easily accessible on foot. The result, they say, has been deadly for pedestrians.

Statewide statistics do show cause for concern. An analysis of 1999 pedestrian injury and fatality data reveals that nearly 20 percent of all traffic-related fatalities are pedestrians, even though only eight percent of all trips are made on foot. California now ranks second in the nation in terms of the percentage share of all traffic-related fatalities that are pedestrians, a number that ranges as high as 26 percent in Sacramento County, 30 percent in Los Angeles County, and 54 percent in San Francisco County. In 1999, at least 688 pedestrians were killed and another 14,346 were injured statewide. In Los Angeles County alone, where thousands of low-income residents and their children rely on walking as a primary mode of transportation to the store, to school, and to the bus stop, police recorded 203 fatalities and 5,377 injuries in 1999 – comprising more than a third of all pedestrian injuries and deaths statewide.

Analysis of state and federal databases and medical literature also shows that:

• Even though California ranks second in the nation behind New York in terms of the percent of all traffic deaths that are pedestrians (one measure of the severity of the problem), it ranks 50^th in terms of per capita spending of federal traffic safety funds on pedestrian safety projects.

• While government spending to address pedestrian safety problems has lagged, the cost to the public of pedestrian accidents in California reached into the billions in 1999; while hospitalization charges alone exceeded $200 million, direct economic costs totaled $1.3 billion when factoring in additional medical, work loss and property damage, and total costs soared to over $3.9 billion when factoring in lost quality of life including pain and suffering.

• While local debates often focus the blame for collisions on either the driver or the pedestrian, research is showing that the design of streets and provision of proper pedestrian safety facilities has a tremendous impact on overall safety. Unfortunately, transportation officials in California have been removing marked crosswalks at uncontrolled intersections without replacing them with any other safety measures.

• According to an analysis of the most recent statewide hospitalization records available, Latinos and African Americans, especially children and the elderly, are at the highest risk from pedestrian-vehicle collisions.

• A disproportionate number of pedestrian victims are likely low-income. Analysis of the most recent available data shows 35 percent of all hospitalized pedestrian victims under 65 in California were Medi-Cal recipients, while just 11 percent of the general population under the age of 65 receives Medi-Cal.

• Being hit and killed by a car is now the second leading cause of fatal injury and the fourth leading cause of hospitalized injury for California children aged 5 to 12.

As alarming as these statistics are, they may not even measure the full extent of the danger to pedestrians. Nationally it has been estimated that injuries may be underreported by as much as 56 percent. A study conducted for the Transportation Research Board in California, New York and North Carolina found that police often do not report collisions that result in emergency room treatment but not hospitalization, and they do not report collisions that occur on private property and in alleys or driveways.(1) These are the locations where many accidents involving the youngest children occur. The California Highway Patrol’s statistics on pedestrian collisions – one of the more comprehensive statewide databases on vehicle-related pedestrian injuries and deaths – include only those incidents that occurred on public property.

It should also be noted, in order to put the seriousness of these collisions into context, that pedestrian injuries account for two-thirds of all severe traffic-related injuries among children,(2) and that the probability of a child dying or becoming severely disabled exceeds that of all other causes of childhood illness(3). Head and spinal injuries are common; studies have shown the incidence rate to range as high as 60 to 80 percent.(4)

The death rate for the elderly, another vulnerable segment of the population, is also very high. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows that 22 percent of all pedestrians killed were over 65, even though only 13 percent of the population is elderly. Studies show the elderly are two to four times more likely to die when struck.(5)

As with automobile fatalities, the total number of pedestrian deaths has dropped slightly in the last few years. The U.S. Department of Transportation says that in five years the number of pedestrians killed or injured has declined by about 6 percent. However, while the amount of driving is increasing, statistics show that the amount of walking is declining. This may mean that while driving is getting safer, walking is getting more dangerous.

The National Personal Transportation Survey, conducted every 5-7 years by the U.S. Department of Transportation, shows the number of trips taken on foot has dropped 42 percent in the last 20 years. U.S. Census data shows that the number of Americans who walk to work has dropped from 10 percent in 1960 to less than 4 percent three decades later.

The extent to which travel patterns have changed, and the extent of the problem that this is causing is illustrated by citing the example of schoolchildren. Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimate that while more than two-thirds of all children walked or biked to school 30 years ago, that number has plummeted to less than 10 percent. A recent British study found that whereas in 1971 80 percent of 7- and 8-year-old children in the United Kingdom were allowed to walk to school unaccompanied, in 1990 the figure had dropped to 9 percent.(6) So many parents drive their kids to school it is now estimated that in many areas the home-to-school trip accounts for 20 to 25 percent of rush hour traffic.(7)

The more traffic increases, the more parents decide they’ll drive because it’s unsafe to walk, adding to the chaos surrounding schools in the morning. Parents who drive exacerbate the danger for those children who must walk, as traffic volume is one of the strongest risk factors for pedestrian collisions. In Santa Ana, a low-income community in Orange County where many children have no choice but to walk, a recent study found that two-thirds of all the traffic accidents involving pedestrians occur within a quarter mile of schools, and half of all the victims are children.(8)

Ironically, the fact that fewer people are walking has increased another kind of danger – the risk of death from diseases associated with physical inactivity and obesity. This has contributed to what both California and U.S. health officials are now calling an obesity "epidemic." These same health officials are prescribing the funding of pedestrian safety programs and the creation of walkable communities as one of the more promising solutions to the problem.

An analysis of statewide data collected by the Department of California Highway Patrol shows that Los Angeles County experienced by far the greatest number of pedestrian fatalities and injuries in 1999 – the 203 pedestrian deaths and 5,377 injuries represent more than a third of the total 688 fatalities and 14,346 injuries in the state. But Los Angeles is also California’s most populous county, and if the rankings are adjusted to reflect population, San Francisco ranks as having per person the highest incidence of pedestrian fatalities and deaths. However, more people walk in San Francisco than in any other California city because there is a mix of residential, retail and other land uses within walking distance, population and development patterns are dense, and public transit is convenient. Therefore, any real measure of the relative danger facing pedestrians also needs to factor in the amount of walking, or "exposure," that occurs in each place.

These factors are all incorporated in a "pedestrian danger index," arrived at by dividing the number of fatalities and injuries in each county by population, and then dividing that number by the county’s "exposure index," or overall levels of pedestrian activity. This number is then adjusted to a relative scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being the most dangerous.

Using the pedestrian danger index, Sacramento County ranks as the most dangerous place for pedestrians in 1999. Contra Costa County has risen to its highest ranking ever (second), followed by Los Angeles, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. This is the first time Sacramento County has ranked most dangerous since our statewide survey began in 1996. Ventura County ranks in the top ten for the first time since 1996, and San Francisco, San Joaquin and Tulare all climbed in the rankings. While Los Angeles dropped from first to third, the number of fatalities actually increased from 200 to 203 since 1998, and the drop in the rankings had more to do with the fact that the number of fatalities increased more sharply in other counties.

The ranking shows that counties in Southern California, the Silicon Valley and the Central Valley are among the most dangerous in the state. These counties are characterized by low-density suburban-style development. Many communities in these counties were built after the 1950s and were designed to make it easy to get around by car, with roads designed to facilitate the highest speeds and the greatest amount of traffic – and with little consideration for those on foot. Many studies have linked higher injury and fatality rates with high traffic volumes, high speeds, wider roads and the absence of sidewalks. Walking in these communities is both inconvenient and dangerous.