Pedestrian deaths across the US mapped

Transportation for America released on May 24 an updated and comprehensive report on pedestrian deaths.

Dangerous by Design examines 47,000 US pedestrian fatalities in the decade 2000-2009, and, remarkably, maps them on an interactive web page. Enter any location in the US, and the map will show you pedestrian deaths over the 10-year period. You can click on each incident to find out details on the fatality, the kind of thoroughfare, and even get a street view.

I checked out my town, Ithaca, and found only one death — which occurred back in 2004. As tragic as that death was, that's a surprisingly good pedestrian safety record for a city where 42 percent of workers walk to their place of employment, and people of all ages routinely get around on foot.

I highly recommend that you check out pedestrian fatalities in your neighborhood and town — it may tell you something that you don't know about the street network and how safe or dangerous it may be for walking.

Meanwhile, here's how Transportation for America describes the report:

The 2011 edition of our pedestrian safety report is out today, looking back on the 47,000 people that were killed and 688,000 injured while walking our nation’s streets in the ten years from 2000-2009. Dangerous by Design 2011 examines the problem and several solutions for the epidemic of preventable deaths that far too many have simply accepted as matter of course.

This edition of our national report, along with data and a report or factsheet for all 50 states, comes with a powerful visual: this year, we’ve taken the pedestrian fatalities from 2001 to 2009 that have location data (all but about 5 percent) and plotted them on an interactive map, allowing you to take a look at the streets and roads near you to see how safe or unsafe they may be. Test it out.