, Columnist
What’s Killing U.S. Pedestrians? Streets That Weren’t Designed for Them.
Walking downtown is actually pretty safe. Out on the bypass, it’s another story.
Made for walking.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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As you may have heard, since a lot was written about it a few weeks ago, pedestrian deaths are on the rise in the U.S. The Governors Highway Safety Association estimated, based on data from the first half of the year, that 6,227 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in 2018. This would be a whopping 50 percent more than were killed in 2009. Adjusted for population, the increase hasn’t been quite so steep, and seems like it might have halted after 2016. But after decades of declines, the turnaround since 2009 is still awful.
Among the explanations that have been trotted out: