TAMPA, Fla. — Steve Davis, the assistant vice president of transportation strategy for Smart Growth America, authored a new report called Dangerous by Design, which shows that pedestrian death numbers are rising in the Tampa Bay area.
The report said streets in most metropolitan areas are “designed primarily to move cars quickly at the expense of keeping everyone safe.”
The Memphis metro area is the most dangerous, while Tampa comes in eighth on the list, with 3.75 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people.
Davis said most of those deaths are happening on state-controlled roads, and the Florida Department of Transportation needs to really step up on the amount of added safety measures.
“In a metro area where 1,300 people have died in a decade, doing it in spots or having six projects that you can point to is not sufficient. There should be 60 or 600 projects to point to,” Davis said.
FDOT and others have worked to make things safer by increasing traffic signals and crosswalks.
The City of Tampa launched its Vision Zero program two years ago. It targets trouble spots with high-visibility crosswalks and flashing beacons.
Smart Growth America has an interactive map where you see the Tampa Bay area’s pedestrian deaths from 2008 to 2022.
If you zoom in, you will see the area’s most dangerous roads, including Hillsborough Avenue on one side and U.S. 19 on the other.
Eddie Mullally lives in Tarpon Springs and likes to walk Thor on the Pinellas Trail to keep safe.
“The areas going to the beach from here is a real dangerous walk. So there are just certain areas. But fortunately, we do have the trail, which is a very safe walk,” said Mullally.
The study also found that not everyone lives and walks at the same risk.
It said Black and Native Americans, older adults, and people in low-income communities died at higher rates than others.
Davis said even cities at the bottom of the list have higher pedestrian rates than cities in Western Europe, and design has a big impact.
“The shape of our roads and the way that they look, how wide lanes are, how far apart signals are, all these things that shape how we drive and our behavior behind the wheel, they have a real impact,” said Davis.
Davis said he sees the issue getting more attention, which will hopefully lead to change.
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