America’s streets remain mean places for pedestrians

“In 2003, 4,827 Americans (11.3 percent of all traffic fatalities) died while crossing the street, walking to school or work, going to a bus stop, or strolling to the grocery, among other daily activities,” the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) reported in December. The “Mean Streets 2004” study from STPP identified Orlando, Florida, as the metropolitan area where the risks for pedestrians worsened the most over ten years. The pedestrian death rate in metro Orlando rose 117 percent in the decade ending in 2003. Other metro areas with especially bad records were Richmond, where the death rate climbed more than 70 percent, and Memphis, where it rose 42 percent. A “Pedestrian Danger Index” created by the researchers “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,” STPP said. Salt Lake City achieved the greatest improvement of any American metropolitan area, cutting its pedestrian death rate 44 percent in ten years. The report attributed much of the improvement to Rocky Anderson, who, upon being elected mayor of Salt Lake City in 1999, “elevated pedestrian safety and walkability to among his admin-istration’s highest priorities.” Officials in the city, which contains 182,000 of the metropolitan area’s 1.3 million residents, compiled figures, showing that in the city, traffic accidents involving a pedestrian have dropped by 31 percent since 2000. Techniques used in Salt Lake City include these: •Pedestrian-activated overhead flashing lights on some busy multilane streets. When a pedestrian pushes a walk button, lights flash over the crosswalk for the time it takes a typical pedestrian to cross, plus ten seconds. • Overhead crosswalk illumination. During the night, a metal halide lamp above the crosswalk area is lighted at 30 percent of its output. When a pedestrian uses a pushbutton, the lighting steps up to full power. • Warnings on pavement. The word “LOOK,” in letters a foot high, has been diecut in black and white into the pavement at some crossings, including those at elementary schools. • Lengthening of “walk” signals. Many signals in the Salt Lake area used to flash “walk” for only five seconds, regardless of how much time was actually available for pedestrians to cross. Now many of the signs have been adjusted to flash “walk” longer. The traffic signal cycles — the lengths of time the lights stay red to stop vehicles — have not changed, however. • Countdown timers. More than 1,000 devices that count down the seconds until the light changes have been installed. Eventually countdown timers are to be installed at all pedestrian signals in the city. • A jaywalking prevention campaign, including fines for crossing where prohibited. • Higher fines for drivers who violate pedestrian’s rights in crosswalks. • Crosswalk flags. At 40 downtown locations, orange flags are provided. Pedestrians are encouraged to carry them while crossing the street, reducing the likelihood that the pedestrians will be run down by inattentive motorists. A Salt Lake City native told New Urban News that the flags seem popular with people who are slow-moving, in poor health, or using walkers or wheelchairs. Problems of wide-open spaces Brigham Young, who led the Mormon migration to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, introduced a practice of building streets 132 feet wide in what is now downtown Salt Lake City. That width allowed a team of four oxen and a covered wagon to turn around, but it challenges pedestrians, who suffer not only exposure to moving vehicles but also exposure to fierce heat when pavement gets hot in the summer. Until cutbacks were made, the city had “a really active traffic-calming program,” New Urban News was told by Dan Bergenthal, a transportation engineer in the city’s Transportation Division. “We did a lot of speed humps, islands (landscaped medians), and circles in the middle of intersections.” The city has also converted the center of several blocks of two downtown streets to angled parking. How much any particular technique has contributed to safety is not known. The STPP report, at www.transact.org, notes one of the more unusual Salt Lake City policies: establishment of a “moving auto-free area” on crosswalks in wide, multilane streets. Motorists must stay out of the travel lane the pedestrian occupies and out of one lane behind or in front of the pedestrian. But vehicles are allowed to drive through other parts of a crosswalk while the pedestrian is crossing. STPP says that because of Utah’s wide multilane roadways, it is “impracticable” to order motorists to stay out of the entire crosswalk area while a pedestrian is crossing. It’s worth noting that despite the sharp decline in danger to pedestrians in metropolitan Salt Lake, the Pedestrian Danger Index (which takes the pedestrian death rate and tempers it by adjusting it according to the percentage of workers who walk to their jobs) indicates that 19 of the 50 largest metropolitan areas are actually safer than the Utah capital region (see table on page 7). Metro Portland, Oregon, achieved the second greatest improvement, reducing its PDI 33 percent, to become the 12th-safest metro area among the 50 largest. The safest metro area was greater Boston. Second was Pittsburgh, third was Cleveland-Akron, and fourth-safest was greater New York. In other words, metro areas with more traditional street networks rank best. u