CAUTION: Walking in America May Lead to Serious Injury or Death
CAUTION! Walking in America may lead to serious injury or death.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), more than 7,500 pedestrians were killed by drivers in 2022, which is the highest annual number since 1981. The numbers have been steadily climbing every single year since 2010, and it's the perfect storm of factors that is driving these numbers up.
Unsafe infrastructure, reckless and distracted drivers, and increasing sizes of SUVs and pickup trucks that are becoming dangerously oversized with increasingly larger blind spots (looking at you, dude with the comically large lifted truck that doesn't enable you to see a 6-foot tall human over your truck's hood).
In 2017, the National Physical Activity Plan quantified the state of walkability in the United States with their inaugural Report Card on Walking and Walkable Communities, which provides a letter grade and corresponding data for 8 different factors.
Spoiler alert, it ain't good...
𝗔𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿: 𝗖
𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿: 𝗙
𝗣𝗲𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: 𝗙
𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆: 𝗙
𝗣𝗲𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝗗
𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝗙
𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗙
𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘀: 𝗗
Simply put....ouch.
To read the full Report Card, you can check it out here.
But, here are a few highlights (or, lowlights):
Only 10% of US States meet the minimum compliance with at least $5.26 per capita funding for biking and walking projects. I don't have the number available to me, but I'd venture to guess that the dollar amount is much higher when it comes to per capita funding for vehicle and highway projects.
Only 8% of US States have achieved fewer than 0.75 pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 population. In 2015, the national average was 1.67 per 100,000. Delaware is particularly deadly for pedestrians with a rate of 3.70 per 100,000.
On average, 15 pedestrians are killed per day in America (this number has grown since 2017).
Only 42% of US States are Safe Routes to School compliant.
