Dangerous By Design: Most Dangerous Large Metro Areas for Pedestrians

[Fumesucker]

Surprise, surprise, surprise, the top four most dangerous pedestrian areas are in Florida..

http://t4america.org/resources/dangerousbydesign/table-1/

Table 1 ranks the 52 largest metro areas (those with at least 1 million residents as of 2008) according to their Pedestrian Danger Index for 2007-2008. The safest places for walking are those with a lower PDI. These metros tend to be older northeastern or northern states, or places with a generally compact development pattern. Metros such as Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; and Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN are investing to build a well-developed network of sidewalks and crosswalks and have many people walking and bicycling.

The list of the most dangerous metro areas for walking is striking in its uniformity. Nine of the ten metro areas are in the South, and the top four are in Florida. These areas are dominated by lower density and automobile-oriented development patterns, which include high-speed urban arterials that are particularly hazardous for walking. A national FHWA survey affirms these results, finding that respondents in the South rate pedestrian safety far lower than their counterparts in the rest of the country.

[customerserviceguy]

1. There's a big difference in pedestrian behavior

in Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA. Here in the NE, people routinely cross the street against a red light. It doesn't happen nearly as often in the NW. Motorists are more likely to slow down and stop when they see a yellow light in the NW, in the NE, that's just an excuse to speed up.

What happens to Northeasterners as they get older? They move to Florida, and continue their bad practices, but with less reaction time.

Apples and oranges.

[KamaAina]

2. In Boston, they say "green means go..."

"...and yellow means go faster!"

[Patiod]

4. I noticed that in Toronto - NO jaywalking

In Philadelphia, jaywalking is automatic

[Captain Hilts]

5. That's how you identify United Statesians in Toronto. I saw a friend standing in a snowstorm

at 3am at the corner of St. George and Bloor WAITING FOR THE LIGHT TO CHANGE before crossing.

Honest to dog, I did.

[Patiod]

11. My experience was a few blocks away, on Avenue off Bloor

Heading to Spuntini. The snow was coming "down" horizontally, and we had to lean forward to walk. There were NO cars on Avenue at all, and yet the group I was with at the light stood and waited patiently for the light to change to cross. In a blizzard. On empty streets. I gave into peer pressure instead of following my Philadelphia impulse to lean forward and move as quickly as possible toward the warm restaurant.

(I don't know if the restaurants are better in Toronto, of if they just seem so warm and welcoming compared to the weather outside - I have similar positive memories about a place outside Minneapolis....)

[XemaSab]

9. People chronically jaywalk in the Bay Area

My friend and I almost got ticketed for jaywalking on a cross-street of Telegraph Avenue AT Telegraph in Berkeley.. We came to the corner, looked both ways, and crossed, not even paying attention to the red light. :P

[Fumesucker]

10. There are very few places to walk in Florida and the South in general.

Sidwalks are all but nonexistent here in the Atlanta suburbs and a lot of places you don't really even have any shoulders, just a thirty foot near-vertical dropoff, if you bail out to avoid a car you could roll a long way down a very steep hill.

I lived in Jacksonville FL for a while in the early 80's, no sidewalks there either.

[DontTreadOnMe]

3. A new sign I just saw this weekend

I was driving in Queens, NY on Grand Avenue. I am from New Jersey, so I am not very knowledgeable to the Queens area.

Grand Avenue is a major 4 lane road, with an outer two-lane side road, meant for the local traffic for storefronts so in effect an 8 lane wide busy avenue.

Anyway, very bust traffic patterns. I came to an intersection that had a VERY LARGE 8 foot municipal traffic sign that read:

"A pedestrian was killed at this intersection. Please slow down and pay attention"

There is no way you can miss it, and I am sure it makes everyone think about as they drive by.

[customerserviceguy]

6. There will probably be more pedestrians killed

from dumbass drivers staring at the sign. I swear, two and a half years of driving around here, and when I go back to the NW, highway driving feels like being on one of the kiddie rides at Playland!

[Kievan Rus]

7. Tell me about it

I refuse to walk through downtown Pittsburgh and ride the subway instead. There's too many drivers paying too much attention to their cell phones and not enough to where they're going...and it's a problem in every city. Hell, it's one of the safest cities on that list...and I still won't walk through the downtown area unless I have to.

No shock that the worst cities are the most car-dependant ones. New York City is the largest city and metro area in America by a long shot...yet it's one of the safest because of its extensive public transit system. The cities at the top of the list have no transit and no sidewalks.

[supernova]

8. Raleigh-Cary, NC #6

This is true, there a barely any sidewalks over there.

[LeftinOH]

12. Built-up areas with no sidewalks are truly horrible; vast networks of highways, service roads,

parking lots, exit/entrance points. Its impossible to walk anywhere -you gotta drive from one parking lot to another, etc. Commercial developers and do-nothing local governments are mostly to blame.