The Wide World of Walking Equipment

Last week an organization called Transportation for America released a study entitled “Dangerous By Design” that measured how major cities compared with one another when it came to walking safety. They make the case that due to urban and suburban planning flaws may of our cities have become highly unsafe for pedestrian traffic.

Summary

Bicycling, walking and jogging have become increasingly popular as we’ve become aware of the dangers that surround a sedentary life style. As a consequence more and more people are forgoing their cars for short trips or have begun regular exercise routines. The result has been more crowded streets, roads and walkways. Over the last several decades, this trend has been at odds with the overriding concern of urban planners which has been to move as many cars through a congested area as quickly as possible. Which was in part achieved by the elimination or minimization of the number of sidewalks, crosswalks and traffic signals. At the same time because of our automobile centered culture, basic walking safety information and training, epically among the young, has fallen by the wayside. As reported in a previous walking safety blog post, the result of these trends is that over the last 15 years 76,000 Americans have lost their lives while walking.

Details

In an effort to establish a measure of exactly how walking safe a city was, the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership developed what it calls a Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI). The index was based upon the number of pedestrian fatalities relative to the amount of walking done by the local citizens. They compiled statistics for 2007-2008 time period in the 52 largest metropolitan areas and generated the following table ranked from wost to best

After analyzing the results it became clear that the most dangerous areas were predominately lower population density areas that place heavy emphasis on auto-oriented travel and in urban areas with a preponderance of high speed road ways . They then looked at state and local highway spending patterns and discovered that many of the worst areas were not spending available monies on walking safety infrastructure in proportion to the number trips local citizens make by foot or bicycle. This, in spite of a number of new regulations that were enacted to encouraged spending an safety related road features ie. sidewalks, crosswalks, speed humps and educational programs.

Action Needed

What’s the answer? The money is there, the regulations are there. What’s left? As with all things there is no one solution, no sliver bullet. Some suggestions. Increase public awareness of the problems and the solutions is one approach that should be encouraged. Applying pressure on the state and local planning authorities to insure that pedestrian needs receive due considered when budgets are reviewed and new projects developed. Finallywe need to reestablish walking safety education, especially in our schools.  Here is a sample of a successful effort

We all like to get out and about once in a while, whether it’s just a short trip to the store or part of a daily exercise routine. Traffic awareness is our first line of defense. But even the most alert of us are at a distinct disadvantage when our neighborhoods are not designed with walking safety in mind. Since exercise walkers spend more of their time outside it behooves us to take a leading role in making sure we and others are safe and secure.

Technorati Tags: PDI, Pedestrain safery, urban planning, walking

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