A recent report called “Dangerous by Design 2016” pointed out the most dangerous U.S. cities for pedestrians. Engineers designed our streets to facilitate quick and efficient travel via vehicles. The report by Smart Growth America shows that the cost of speedy car travel is high for pedestrians.

What did the report say?

Between 2005 and 2014, 46,149 pedestrians died in car crashes. In 2014 alone, 4,884 pedestrians were lost. That is more than 13 pedestrian deaths every day. Smart Growth America concluded that during the study, Americans were 7.2 times more likely to die as a pedestrian than from a natural disaster.

The study looked at the problem of pedestrian fatalities and ranked each of the fifty states and their large cities on a scale from most dangerous to least dangerous for pedestrians.

Where did Florida rank?

Florida came in top place for the most dangerous state for pedestrians, with 5,142 pedestrian deaths. In fact, out of every city in the United States, the seven most deadly cities for pedestrians are all located in Florida.

Based on the study’s findings and its computed “pedestrian danger index” or “PDI” the seven most dangerous cities for pedestrians are:

  1. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida (165 deaths during the study, PDI of 283.1)
  2. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida (142 deaths during the study, PDI of 235.2)
  3. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida (575 deaths during the study, PDI of 234.7)
  4. Jacksonville, Florida (379 deaths during the study, PDI of 228.7)
  5. Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, Florida (191 deaths during the study, PDI of 228.2)
  6. Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida (161 deaths during the study, PDI of 200.6)
  7. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (821 deaths during the study, PDI of 192)

Smart Growth America looked at the total number of pedestrian deaths caused by vehicles and made adjustments for the total population in the city and other important factors to create their ranked list.

In addition to the top seven cities, there were two more Florida cities in the top twenty most dangerous cities for pedestrians. In 10th place was North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton with 150 pedestrian deaths and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach in 11th with 1,508 deaths.

Even though the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area ranked 11th, the area had the third highest amount of pedestrian deaths, trailing behind only the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim and New York-Newark-Jersey City areas.

These dangerous cities gave Florida a PDI of 177.

What is Florida doing to make roads safer for pedestrians?

According to the report, this is the fourth year in a row that Florida has topped the list of dangerous cities. In response, the Florida Department of Transportation created a Complete Streets Policy in 2014 and published an implementation plan in 2015.

More than 70 cities and communities have also created their own Complete Streets policies to help curb pedestrian accidents and make streets safer.

For more information about traffic safety, visit our blog. For help with a legal issue after an accident, contact the attorneys of the Montero Law Center today at 954-767-6500.