It’s taken longer than safety officials wish, but the United States finally is making progress to cut down on pedestrian deaths.
For the second year in a row, the Governors Highway Safety Association’s estimate released Wednesday for the first six months of 2024 shows pedestrian deaths dropping slightly. That reverses a trend of more than 10 years of increases in deaths among people walking the nation’s streets and highways.
Overall, the association reported that 3,304 pedestrians were struck and killed through June 2024. That’s 88 fewer than the previous year.
“I think we’re trending in the right direction,” said Adam Snider, director of communications for the association.
But Snider emphasized the numbers are still “largely negative,” citing an increase of 48% since 2014. During that time, the U.S. population increased 7%.
In its 15-page report, the association noted that deaths from vehicle crashes have fluctuated in the past 15 years, largely heading down until the pandemic. During the pandemic, crash deaths spiked due fewer drivers on the road engaging in more dangerous behavior like driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, speeding and not wearing seatbelts.
Since the pandemic and a strong national effort, deaths from crashes have leveled off the past few years.
On the other hand, pedestrian deaths have shown a steady deadly climb that didn’t peak until 2023. Experts attribute that more people walking and more large vehicles like SUVs on the road, which make it hard for drivers to see pedestrians and cause more serious injuries when crashes occur.
Snider said it’s important for more communities to do like Pittsburgh has done and participate in coordinated safety efforts such as Vision Zero. Under that program, the city has a special team that investigates each fatal vehicular or pedestrian crash to determine what happened and make safety changes as quickly as possible to try to prevent a repeat event.
“Whatever you call it, those concerted efforts are really important,” Snider said. “That complete focus on safety is sorely needed.”
There are efforts that communities can make that don’t have to cost a lot of money. For example, installing speed bumps to slow traffic or putting bump outs at intersections to reduce the distance for pedestrians to cross the street can increase safety without spending a lot of money, Snider said.
Although the Trump administration has made a strong effort to reduce spending, Snider said the association isn’t concerned that could result in creating more dangerous road conditions. There has been no indication safety programs are facing the budget axe.
“There is a lot of support for safety programs,” Snider said. “You’re going to be hearing from a lot more people who are not very happy with that if that changes.”
Across the country, the largest states remain the most dangerous for pedestrians. California (439), Florida (366) and Texas (340) continue to have the most deaths – no other state is above 200 – although each of them went down more than 8% in the first half of last year.
Still, those states accounted for 35% of pedestrian deaths nationwide.
Deaths in Pennsylvania increased by 10 to 83. The state has fluctuated between 64 and 85 deaths in the first six months of the year since 2019.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.