Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State (2013)

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Here are a few good--or rather, bad-- stats on pedestrian fatalities by state. Want to take a guess which state has the most? Nope, it's not New York with uber-walkable NYC...

Worth noting, however, is that even though our fair state has the most pedestrian fatalities, we don't have the highest percentage of pedestrian deaths; that dubious distinction goes to New Jersey, followed closely by New York (the full table also includes Washington, D.C. with 47 percent, but it's hardly reasonable to compare state statistics with city statistics, so we'll set that aside).

 The real question is how these numbers compare with the number of people out there walking--we know that pedestrians are ove-represented when it comes to deaths/injuries, but are these percentages wildly disproportionate? Without good data on walking mode share, we can't really know--all the more reason to push for better pedestrian counts. 

CicloSDias Comes to PB

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The latest incarnation of CicloSDias came to our neighborhood this weekend, providing a great excuse to walk and bike in what would otherwise be a pretty unfriendly stretch of Garnet Avenue and Cass Street. Here are some pictures of the festivities.

For the unfamiliar, the Ciclovia movement started in 1976 (!) in Bogota Colombia, but grew to international prominence under the leadership of mayor Enrique Peñalosa in the 1990s. Since then cities across the world have followed suit with their own version of Ciclovias (sometimes know as Sunday Streets or Open Streets events), including several dozen cities in the US (more info in this nice write-up from Atlanta Streets Alive).

While Sunday's Pacific Beach event was populated primarily by cyclists in all shapes and sizes, there were also plenty of walkers, a handful of skaters, and (this being a beach town) any number of skateboarders enjoying the sunny weather and lack of cars. Despite the abundance of cyclists, I felt pretty comfortable walking the route with my two-week-old in her stroller; I didn't see anyone pedaling at an unsafe speed or being overly aggressive towards slower folks. While it would have been nice to have a few more booths or activities along the route, the adjacent businesses provided lots of excuses for pit stops.

From an anecdotal perspective, whether or not the event increased business traffic seemed to depend on the type of business. Some of the restaurants seemed slower than usual, and I doubt the auto-parts store was seeing much action, but the cafes and ice-cream shops seemed to be doing a brisk trade (they got our business, at least!).

Trip and Fall Lawsuits vs. Sidewalk Repair

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Reading through this article about how much the City of Helsinki spends on trip and fall compensation over the winter ($1.37 million) got me wondering about those same costs here in San Diego. Granted, conditions in Finland aren't exactly comparable to those here, but according to a study cited in the article Helsinki would save at least $10 for every $1 spent on road maintenance and planning. Would fixing our sidewalks before someone falls actually save us money in the long run?

On their face, the calculations here, suggest no--at least, not in legal fees. Repairing San Diego's sidewalks would cost at least $6 million each year, and it would take another $170 million to install sidewalks in all the place they're missing. But the City only pays out about $350,000 each year to resolve trip and fall lawsuits (yet another reason we're lucky not to have snow and ice, I guess). The situation is the same for our largest neighbor to the north. Los Angeles has a sidewalk repair backlog of $1.6 billion, while the city spends a "mere" $3 to $5 million on trip and fall suits each year.

But these numbers don't take into account the added value that well-kept sidewalks might contribute to their adjoining properties. There's little research how sidewalks specifically impact property values and sales, but one study suggests that walkability in general adds up to $34,000 to home values, and another shows rents in walkable shopping areas can be over 50 percent higher than those in their less-walkable counterparts. Retail sales in walkable areas are higher, too.

Since sidewalks (particularly those in good repair) are a critical piece of the walkability puzzle, they're obviously adding something to the mix, and cities are benefiting from those sidewalks in the form of higher revenues from sales and property taxes. Add that to the decreased legal fees from trip and fall lawsuits, and it's hard to understand why any city would hesitate to fix its sidewalks sooner rather than later. 

March Webinars

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March 6, 10 am -12 pm (PST)

Innovative Transportation Stormwater Management: Green Infrastructure in Road Projects

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Wastewater Management and the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Project Development and Environmental Review are teaming up to co-sponsor the webcast “Innovative Transportation Stormwater Management: Green Infrastructure in Road Projects.” 

Roads can convey a variety of pollutants into our waterways and can increase the volume and velocity of stormwater generated. Green infrastructure techniques are one solution that can be used to reduce and treat stormwater runoff. This webcast will include brief overviews about green infrastructure from FHWA and USEPA and showcase two state transportation organizations committed to innovative initiatives to improve water quality and manage the quality and quantity of stormwater runoff from road surfaces. The speakers will highlight collaborative projects, policy recommendations to strategically incorporate green infrastructure into the roadway funding and approval process, and describe a programmatic approach to the design and construction of stormwater BMPs along with a chloride offset program.

Register here.

March 14, 10 am- 11:30 am (PST)

Pedestrian Safety and the Highway Safety Improvement Program

This webinar will provide an overview of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) and its applications for addressing pedestrian safety.

Karen Scurry (Federal Highway Administration Office of Safety) will provide an overview of the program and discuss the relationships between the different HSIP programs, eligibility requirements, resources for additional information, and examples of pedestrian focused projects that have used HSIP funds.

The webinar will also feature presentations from two states – Arizona and California – to focus on how HSIP is applied on the state and local levels.  Providing these presentations will be Kohinoor Kar (Arizona Department of Transportation) and David Cohen (FHWA California Division).
The presenters will also participate in a question and answer session to answer questions from the attendees.

Register here. 

March 20, 11 am - 12:30 pm (PST)

Keeping Pedestrians Safe in Urban and Suburban Settings

Pedestrian fatalities have been on the rise over the past couple of years. By attending this free webinar, you will find out more about how we can reverse this unsettling trend and make our urban and suburban communities safer for pedestrians. Walking is the mode of choice for some, and the only choice for many. It is imperative that pedestrian safety becomes a priority for and incorporated into all planning and design processes. 

This webinar, Walking Shouldn't Be Hazardous to Your Health, Part 1: Keeping Pedestrians Safe in Urban and Suburban Settings, will provide an overview of tools, campaigns and strategies you can use to work toward a positive impact on pedestrian safety and help reverse pedestrian fatalities and injuries. Our featured speakers, Noah Budnick and Michael King, are experts in the field of pedestrian safety and the built environment. They will walk you through addressing pedestrian safety in both urban and suburban settings, tackling these issues through campaigns and design.

Register here.

Speed Reduction Case Studies: Portland, Seattle, Washington, DC

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Three more case studies showing how cities across the country have used a variety of measures to reduce speeds and increase biking and walking.

Portland, Oregon: Neighborhood Greenway Initiative 

Portland, already known for its commitment to cycling and pedestrian mobility, created its Neighborhood Greenways plan to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety and further encourage biking and walking. The plan converted and expanded existing Bicycle Boulevards into a network of Neighborhood Greenways, residential streets designed to prioritize bicycles and pedestrians over automobile traffic. Typically, greenway speed limits are 20 mph and traffic volume is 250–1,000 cars per day.The Neighborhood Greenways initiative uses speed bumps to achieve the desired 20 mph operating speed.

Photo courtesy of HRIA

The City has already created a network of greenways that reaches a quarter of residents in Portland, and hopes to expand that number to 80 percent by 2015. Creation costs for each mile of greenway are about $150,000 per mile, in part because the city was able to use existing trail connections and routes with signals. Funding for Portland’s Neighborhood Greenways comes from a variety of sources, including general transportation revenue and transportation grant-funding, as well as Safe Routes to Schools grants. 

While there is not yet enough data to measure a reduction in injuries and fatalities associated with Neighborhood Greenways, bicycle volumes increased by approximately 6.4 percent between 2010 and 2011 and within the same timeframe, 61 percent more bicycles were counted at 11 locations on newly developed neighborhood greenways.

Seattle, Washington: A Multi-Faceted Approach To Speed Reduction

As part of its 2012 Road Safety Action Plan, the City of Seattle set a goal of zero traffic-related fatalities by 2030 and identified speed reduction as one of six priority areas to help achieve that goal. A key reason for this was to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety: while the number of collisions in Seattle dropped from 2000 to 2010, collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists did not.

Seattle addressed speeding in four broad ways: 

1. Policy: Pending state legislation would allow the City of Seattle to reduce speed limits on low-volume, low-speed residential roads more easily.
2. Education: The City promotes safe driving through its Be Super Safe campaign, which targets males ages 16-24.
3. Environment: Seattle makes physical changes to the road, such as road diets and upgrading signage, to make drivers aware of speed limits and encourage reduced speeds. As part of the City's Arterial and Neighborhood Traffic Calming program, Seattle has implemented over 30 road diets and implemented an automated enforcement program
4. Enforcement: The City increases police and automated enforcement of speed limits

The City allocated $200,000 from the General Fund in 2013 and 2014 with emphasis on speed reduction measures, as well as $2.1 million for pedestrian and bicycle enhancement and $1.5 million for pedestrian, bicycle, and greenway additions. The work is also funded through state grants. 

Washington, DC: Automated Speed Enforcement 

Photo courtesy of HRIA

In 2001, nearly 60 percent of traffic fatalities in Washington, DC were speed-related. Based on evidence that consistent enforcement of traffic laws effectively changed driver behavior, the City created a Photo Enforcement Program to address speeding problems. The program uses 

stationary and portable photo radar cameras, cameras in vehicles, and intersection safety cameras to enforce speed limits. Currently there are 10 permanent sites and 15 portable sites within the city, in addition to up to 18 vehicles with photo enforcement deployed six days a week. 

The City typically sees a 60 to 80 percent reduction in speeding violations within a few 

months of cameras being deployed at a site. Overall, the number of traffic fatalities in DC has dropped from 68 in 2003 to 19 in 2012, average speeds among all vehicles in DC have been reduced, and the rate of speeding over 10 mph above the speed limit has dropped from one in three drivers to just one in 40.

To build community support for the program, the City worked hard to communicate its goals and intended outcomes to the community by speaking at citizen meetings and soliciting input on where to place cameras. As a result, the program enjoys strong community support, with 76 percent of those surveyed favored speed cameras.