Pedestrian Death
Basics
Report: US Pedestrian Death Rate Increased 9x Faster Than Population During COVID
Pedestrian deaths are continuing to skyrocket as the pandemic drags on — and since 2019, analysts say the death rate for walkers has eclipsed the rate of population growth by a factor of at least nine.
According to the latest fatality estimates from the Governor's Highway Safety Association, U.S. drivers killed 3,434 people on foot in the first six months of 2022, an increase of five percent over the same period the prior year — and a staggering 18 percent increase over the number of walkers who died in early 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
The group also pointed out that those numbers can't easily be explained by non-traffic-related factors, noting that since "2019, the last pre-pandemic year, pedestrian fatalities have surged 18 percent in just three years – nine times faster than U.S. population growth."
February 28, 2023
Want Drivers to Stop at Crosswalks? Slow Them Down First
Many motorists yield to pedestrians in crosswalks — but not when they're driving at deadly speeds, according to a new study that shows the need to slow down car drivers with broader road design changes, and not just more signs and paint.
January 11, 2023
Road Deaths Surged Alongside Covid — But Who Died, Exactly?
The surge of traffic deaths in the first year of the pandemic can't be completely explained by quarantine-emptied roads that made speeding easy — and new data on who, exactly, was involved in those crashes may lead to more questions than answers.
January 9, 2023
Big Auto’s Fuel Economy Plateau is Especially Bad News for Pedestrians
Average fuel economy on new U.S. vehicles has hit a troubling plateau last year, a new federal report finds — and the reason why is particularly bad news for vulnerable road users, in addition to the planet at large.
December 15, 2022
Why There Are So Few Monuments to Traffic Violence Victims — And Why It Matters
People who die in car crashes largely go unmemorialized in the public realm. Here's why that's bad.
November 18, 2022
‘Walkable City’ 10 Years Later: What If We Took Traffic Violence As Seriously As Terror?
Research suggests that you are 568 times less likely to die in a terror attack than a car crash. So why do cities devote so much less to making their cities walkable than they do to preventing politically-motivated violence?
November 17, 2022
Senators Urge Regulators to ‘Put the Pedal to the Metal’ On Vehicle Safety Standards
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has been in effect for a full year, but federal transportation leaders still haven't implemented some of its most crucial safety provisions — and advocates and electeds say its time they step up to stem the record-setting tide of traffic deaths on U.S. roads
November 16, 2022
Research: Permanent Daylight Savings Time Could Save Human and Animal Lives on Our Roads
Rolling back the clocks in November may give millions of Americans an extra hour of sleep — but it also costs human and animal lives on U.S. roads that could be saved by making daylight savings time permanent, a new study argues.
November 9, 2022
Can This Documentary Get Americans to Care About Pedestrian and Cyclist Deaths?
A new documentary aims to tell the dramatic story of America's escalating pedestrian and cyclist death crisis — and, hopefully, inspire non-advocates to get involved in the movement to end the epidemic.
August 25, 2022
The First Step to Ending Pedestrian Deaths? Tax Heavy Cars In Cities
Washington is the first city in the nation to propose a targeted charge by vehicle weight, but even that ambitious policy falls short of similar weight charges in other countries.
July 7, 2022
