Making Our Streets and Communities Safer and More Healthy

May 24th, 2018

It’s the most basic form of transportation, the one available to most of us regardless of age, the size of our bank accounts, or access to other options. It’s non-polluting, builds community cohesion and can dampen crime. And it’s something almost all of us could use far more of. In fact, it is tough to find a social, economic, or ecological problem it couldn’t help to address. Yet for too many Americans, walking remains far more perilous than it should be.

According to a recent report from the Governor’s Highway Safety Administration, an estimated 5,997 people were killed while traveling on foot last year, an 11 percent increase from the previous year and almost double the growth in overall traffic fatalities witnessed during the same time frame. It is the largest annual increase in the number and percentage of pedestrian fatalities in the 40 year that such statistics have been tracked. Ironically, this extraordinary spike comes at a time when there has arguably never been more interest in walking and walkable places.