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Mean Streets 2002
Pedestrian Safety, Health and Federal Transportation Spending

Where it’s most dangerous to walk

4,955 people died in the year 2001 while walking down the street in the United States, up from the toll of 4,843 in 2000. This is the first increase in deaths since 1995. An estimated 78,000 pedestrians were injured in traffic crashes during each of those two years. While only about 5 percent of all trips are made on foot, about 12 percent of all traffic deaths are pedestrians, making walking one of the most dangerous modes of travel. This report looks at where Americans are dying as pedestrians, what makes the streets dangerous for those on foot, and how the states are responding to those dangers.

The pedestrian danger index (PDI) shows where it is most dangerous to step out of your door to take a walk. It looks at the rate of pedestrians deaths, relative to the amount that people walk in a community. The PDI shows that the most dangerous places to walk are metropolitan areas marked by newer, low-density developments, where wide, high-speed arterial streets offer few sidewalks or crosswalks. The most dangerous metropolitan area for walking in 2000/2001 was Orlando, followed by Tampa, West Palm Beach, Memphis, Miami, Jacksonville, Houston, Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Nashville.

Lack of investment

Unfortunately, despite the pleas of mayors and local elected officials, few federal transportation dollars are being spent on pedestrian safety in most of these areas. STPP analyzed state spending of federal transportation funds, and found that in nine of the top ten most dangerous metropolitan areas, state spending of federal dollars on creating a safe walking environment is well below average. The ten areas listed above are spending an average of 62 cents per person on pedestrian facilities or safety programs, significantly below the national average of 87 cents per person each year.

Because state Departments of Transportation typically control the vast majority of federal funds (94 cents of every federal transportation dollar), federally-funded roads have tended to be designed and built with little regard to local needs. This often results in wide, high-speed arterials (the type of roads that the state DOTs are most familiar with) running through towns and neighborhoods. Unfortunately, these are the same roads which are the most deadly for pedestrians.

STPP’s analysis shows that the states are not investing enough of their federal transportation dollars to protect people who walk. While 12 percent of all traffic deaths are pedestrians (13.6 percent if bicyclists are included), less than one percent (0.7 percent) of federal transportation construction, operations, and maintenance funds are spent to ensure a safe walking environment. No state spends more than 2.7 percent of their federal transportation funds on sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic calming, speed humps, multi-use paths, or safety programs for cyclists or pedestrians. This is in spite of a 40 percent increase in federal transportation dollars flowing to the states in the last few years, and regulations that make it easier to use what were once “highway funds” on a wider variety of transportation projects.

In addition, the states have lost the opportunity to spend $700 million on bicycle and pedestrian projects through a program in the federal law. The program, Transportation Enhancements, is designed to support bicycle and pedestrian projects. The states have under-spent the funds available for the Transportation Enhancement program by about $700 million since fiscal year 1998.

Roads built for speed

Rather than investing in pedestrian safety, many state departments of transportation often choose to build roads that turn out to be dangerous for people on foot. In looking at why some metropolitan areas rank high on the pedestrian danger index, STPP’s analysis found that two-thirds of the roads where the most pedestrians are killed are located in the top ten most dangerous areas as ranked in the PDI. The deadliest roads tend to be high-speed arterials, with few accommodations or protections for pedestrians. For example, the road with the highest overall fatalities, US 19 in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, is a six to eight-lane principal arterial with a speed limit of 45 mph. It has few sidewalks or crosswalks, and is lined by strip malls and big box stores set far back from the street. While designed for access via automobile, people do walk on this street, and an average of 11 pedestrians die on this stretch of road each year.

People at higher risk

For the first time, the federal fatality statistics include a look at the racial and ethnic background of those killed. While the record is not complete (data is not available for 37 percent of deaths), it does show that ethnic and racial minorities are over-represented in pedestrian deaths. African-Americans make up more than 20 percent of pedestrian deaths, even though they represent just 12 percent of the total population.

Children also face higher risks as pedestrians. Pedestrian injury is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 5 to 14. This is true even though the evidence shows that fewer children are walking. Only about 10 percent of children walk to school, down from 50 percent in 1969. Forty percent of parents asked about the barriers to children walking to school cited traffic as a major concern. About 70 percent of children’s trips are made in the back seat of a car.

The health risk of walking less

While walking presents some dangers, not walking may hold more hazards. As children have been walking less, the percentage of children who are obese or overweight has soared. The same is true for adults: the portion of people who walk to work dropped by 26 percent between 1990 and 2000, at the same time that the percentage of the population who are obese or overweight jumped more than 60 percent. The Surgeon General’s Call to Action on the obesity epidemic calls for providing safe and accessible sidewalks, walking, and bicycle paths. Physical inactivity is also associated with a heightened risk for many diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and pancreatic and breast cancer.

The medical costs of physical inactivity are estimated at about $76 billion per year. Meanwhile, the federal transportation program, which weighs in at about $46 billion per year, spends less than one percent of that - about $250 million annually - on creating safer places to walk and bicycle.

Recommendations for state and federal action

The effort to create a better walking environment would be much more effective if state and national transportation agencies embraced walking as a transportation priority by adopting the following recommendations:

· Match the Level of Funding to the Level of the Problem.

· Create Walk-Friendly Streets.

· Give Funding to Those Who Own the Roads.

· Include Safe Routes to School Program in TEA-3.

· Require Better Data Collection.

· Require Better Pedestrian Performance Measures.

· Prioritize Access by Foot.