by Clark Merrefield, The Journalist’s Resource
Each year, thousands of people die trying to cross roads in the U.S., making pedestrian safety a perpetual policy issue in cities and towns of all sizes. That’s why local news outlets pay close attention when government officials discuss crosswalk design and construction.
Photo: Jack Finnigan / Unsplash
In recent months, news organizations have covered crosswalk construction or changes to existing crosswalks, including new, decorative pavers in Slidell, Louisiana, proposed infrastructure changes aimed at improving pedestrian safety in Phoenix, and decorative, themed crosswalks, such as rainbow crosswalks painted in towns across the country for Pride month.
Such stories call attention to the dangers of pedestrians and vehicles sharing roadways — and the rising rate of pedestrian deaths nationwide.
The Governors Highway Safety Association estimates at least 7,508 pedestrians were killed as a result of crashes on U.S. roadways in 2022. (Oklahoma did not submit data used for the analysis.)
The share of pedestrian deaths as a percentage of all traffic fatalities has risen 4.6 percentage points in recent years, from 13.0% in 2010 to 17.6% in 2021, according to the association’s latest preliminary pedestrian safety report, published in June 2023.
On top of those fatalities, there are more than 47,000 hospitalizations resulting from pedestrian crash injuries each year, according to a September 2020 analysis published in BMC Public Health.
Hotspots for pedestrian deaths — road corridors roughly a half-mile long with relatively high rates of deadly pedestrian-vehicle crashes — are more likely to be near commercial zones, have speed limits over 30 mph and have traffic volumes greater than 25,000 vehicles per day, according to January 2021 research published in The Journal of Transport and Land Use.
There is extensive research on measures that can improve pedestrian crossings. Recent studies have found that crosswalks are most effective when they are well lit at night and there is nearby signage alerting drivers they are coming up on a crosswalk.
Research also finds that Black and Hispanic pedestrians are at higher risk of being killed by a vehicle, compared with those who are white or Asian or Pacific Islander. And, current traffic light timings are typically set according to the average walking speed of a person without physical disabilities under age 65 — creating potentially dangerous situations for older pedestrians and people with disabilities.
Keep reading for more — including insight into the future of pedestrian safety as autonomous vehicles become increasingly common on U.S. roads.
Why pedestrian crashes happen and demographic risk trends
Recent research has identified several characteristics of intersections where vehicle-pedestrian crashes are more likely. A peer-reviewed analysis published in August 2022 used pedestrian crossing data from July 2017 to June 2018 at 1,606 intersections with traffic signals in Utah to predict crash counts at those crossings over a decadelong period.
The authors predict more pedestrian crashes at intersections with heavy foot and vehicle traffic. Other factors that worsened pedestrian safety included long crossing distances, intersections where right-on-red turns were allowed, commercial or vacant land nearby and communities where higher percentages of pedestrians have a physical disability or are racial or ethnic minorities, among other factors.
Uncontrolled crosswalks, those without a traffic signal or stop sign, generally “correspond to higher pedestrian crash rates, often due to inadequate pedestrian crossing accommodations,” according to a 2018 guidance document for local transportation agencies produced by the Federal Highway Administration.
Other recent, comprehensive research indicates Black and Hispanic pedestrians are more likely than white pedestrians and Asian or Pacific Islander pedestrians to be killed by a vehicle.
The authors of a September 2020 paper published in BMC Public Health find that from 2009 to 2016, there were 376,417 hospitalizations related to pedestrian-vehicle crashes, amounting to $1.13 billion in estimated hospital costs yearly. Overall, the authors report more than 47,000 people are injured in pedestrian crashes each year in the U.S.
The mortality rate was highest for Black pedestrians, at 2.78 per 100,000 people nationally. The rate for Hispanic pedestrians was 2.07, followed by white pedestrians at 1.67 and Asian or Pacific Islander pedestrians at 1.44. The hospital admission rate per 100,000 people was 15.62 for Black pedestrians, 13.00 for white pedestrians, 11.82 for Hispanic pedestrians and 8.27 for Asian or Pacific Islander pedestrians.
Hospital stays were longer and medical costs were higher for Black and Hispanic pedestrians compared with white pedestrians.
“Our results also align with previous research that has established links between race and inequities in safety and accessibility of transportation, including walking, and neighborhood social inequities, traffic volumes, road design, and road traffic injuries,” the authors write.
Recent research also suggests historically Black neighborhoods may lack crosswalks. The author of an April 2022 peer-reviewed paper uses satellite mapping to identify which San Francisco neighborhoods have crosswalks and which don’t.
There are about 6,400 intersections in San Francisco, and 58% of them have painted crosswalks, the author finds. Neighborhoods in the northern half of the city were more likely to have crosswalks than neighborhoods in the southern half.
The author closely examines 1,000 intersections in four neighborhoods with varying demographic characteristics. Just over half of intersections had crosswalks in Bayview, a historically Black neighborhood, compared with over two-thirds of intersections with crosswalks in Pacific Heights, a majority-white neighborhood.
A future consideration for pedestrian safety is whether a human or an autonomous system is operating an oncoming vehicle. By 2035, some 17% of new cars sold may have advanced autonomous driving systems, according to a conservative estimate from a January 2023 report from McKinsey & Company.
There is at least one recent paper that looks at real-world autonomous driving data and intersection interactions. The authors of peer-reviewed research published in February 2023 use 1,500 hours of sensor data from autonomous cars in Canada, the U.S. and Singapore to assess how self-driving vehicles approach people walking or riding bikes.
They report that autonomous vehicles making right turns are riskiest for pedestrians, while left turns are riskiest for bicyclists.
“The task of keeping active road users safe, while tricky in some situations, can be improved by more cautious [autonomous vehicle] behavior, a better ability to interpret active road user intentions, and a better understanding of the specific risky scenarios,” the authors write.
