A new study from a national non-profit has found the Tampa Bay area is still a scary place for pedestrians. And it is only getting worse. Smart Growth America analyzed national fatality data over the past five years to come up with this sobering statistic — the Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area is the fourth most dangerous place for walkers. The report explains why fatalities have increased because of the pandemic, why some cities are worse than others and what can be done about it.
Dangerous by Design
The official report titled Dangerous by Design, shows that over 6,500 people were struck and killed while walking in 2020, an average of nearly 18 per day, and a 4.5 percent increase over 2019. They study argues that this problem continues because our nation’s streets are dangerous by design. The streets were designed primarily to move cars quickly at the expense of keeping everyone safe. The result in 2020 was a significant increase in all traffic fatalities, even with less driving overall due to the pandemic.
Early estimates from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) show that 7,485 people walking were struck and killed in 2021. This would be the highest number in 40 years and one of the biggest single-year jumps in decades—between 11 and 13 percent in one year.
Who is getting hurt?
Low-income communities are significantly less likely to have access to parks and other opportunities for safe recreational walking and are less likely to have sidewalks, marked crosswalks, and street design to support safer, slower speeds. Lower-income neighborhoods are also much more likely to contain major arterial roads built for high speeds and higher traffic volumes at intersections, exacerbating dangerous conditions for people walking.
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Also, although everyone is affected by dangerous street design this burden is not shared equally. Despite other changes, the pandemic perpetuated existing disparities in who is being killed at the highest rates: Black and Native Americans.
What can be done?
Smart Growth America argues that the entire system needs to be transformed. The organization states that managing individual behavior, like issuing speeding tickets to dangerous drivers, isn’t effective. The organization elaborates:
When streets are designed with safety in mind, people intuitively drive more slowly, making them able to notice and process important signals from their environment, preventing dangerous behavior before it occurs, and focusing efforts on safer systems rather than individual behavior
Dangerous by Design report, 2022
In the Tampa Bay area, overhauling entire streets may prove difficult. Instead, the major downtown areas are looking towards expanding mass transit programs. The St. Pete area is experimenting with more mass transportation options as the SunRunner plans to connect St. Pete Beach to the downtown area. This will hopefully cut down on pedestrians walking along 1st Ave.
Tampa may get the chance to expand their transit options as well. In November voters will get the chance to approve a 1% surtax to improve the overall quality of existing infrastructure and fund new projects.
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