NEW YORK, April 09 (Reuters) -- Be extra careful to look both ways in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Experts say it tops the list of American cities most deadly for pedestrians.
"The most dangerous metropolitan areas for walkers tend to be newer, sprawling, southern and western communities, where transportation systems are most biased toward the car," according to a report from the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP), written in collaboration with the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
In the report issued Tuesday, entitled "Mean Streets," the authors say that current levels of pedestrian traffic-related fatalities and injuries in the U.S. resemble "carnage."
"Our findings indicate that from 1986 to 1995, approximately 6,000 pedestrians were killed by automobiles each year, and more than 110,000 were injured." The deaths equal "a commercial airline crash with no survivors every two weeks."
"Pedestrians are nearly twice as likely to be killed by a stranger with a car as a stranger with a gun," begins the report. It lists the 41 most dangerous American cities for pedestrian injury. Surprisingly, you're more likely to get mowed down at a Florida crosswalk than a Manhattan intersection. Although New York City does have the greatest annual number of pedestrian fatalities (310), its millions of daily pedestrians mean the actual risk to any one walker is pretty low.
The top five most deadly cities, in descending order, are Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Atlanta, Tampa, and Dallas. The safest cities on the 41-city list? Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Boston, Rochester (NY), and New York.
The average pedestrian is 11 times more likely to get struck and killed in Fort Lauderdale than in Pittsburgh, STPP says.
With such a high rate of incidence, someone out there must be spending a lot of money to bring fatalities down, right? Wrong. According to STPP: "Pedestrians account for 14% of all motor vehicle-related deaths, yet only 1% of highway safety funds are spent on pedestrian safety."
"Pedestrians are not getting their fair share of the federal safety dollar," said Hank Dittmar, executive director of STPP. "Pedestrian safety historically has meant getting out of the way -- that has to change.... We need to switch our priorities. People first, cars second."
"Much of the money spent to improve roads actually makes them more dangerous for walkers," said Ken Cook, president of EWG. Data from the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration show that 55% of pedestrians are killed on neighborhood roads and streets -- the places that are commonly believed to be the safest.
The report authors blame the general 'car culture', and the power of a highway lobby they call the "Road Gang"; comprised of construction, auto, and trucking interests. Groups like STPP and EWG are in a Capitol Hill tug-of-war with the "Road Gang" over 1997 reauthorization of funding for a 1991 highway act called the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). Part of ISTEA's 1991 mandate required a small portion of the $150 billion in spending be used on improved pedestrian safety measures.
"If... 'the Road Gang' have their way, the next version of the law will be a throwback to the days when every penny was poured into highway construction," STPP says. The organization believes a common highway-construction manual's reference to pedestrians as mere "flow interruption" epitomizes the industry's disregard for the walking public.
The STPP report says safety improvements do save lives. "In Seattle," they point out, "the city's traffic calming program reduced pedestrian accidents by more than 75%. In Portland, Oregon, traffic circles reduced the number of reported accidents by 50%."
The STPP, which is a coalition of over 200 environmental and community groups, is asking the federal government to "recognize pedestrian safety as a national transportation priority on a par with automobile and railroad safety." The group advocates more local control over where and how federal funds are spent, calls for expansion of the federal capital safety funding program, and wants assurances that road-building projects won't add to pedestrian hazards.
