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Why Are So Many Pedestrians Killed by Cars in the US? (www.construction-physics.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/urbanism@slrpnk.net
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[–] 10 points 11 months ago (1 child)

I have some family that lives in Louisiana and every time I go I'm just horrified by the lack of public amenities. There are just no sidewalks in huge portions of that state. Just huge stretches of long winding two lane roads 45 mph weaving erratically through heavily forested areas with sharp turns and no visibility. No sidewalks on the side just steep drainage ditches. It's a death trap. If you tried to walk on that road, especially at night, you're asking to die. Nobody walks anywhere if they can avoid it. Every time I visit I am just blown away.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Despite this, the article suggests that nearly all of the increase in deadly accidents has come from urban roads.

    If the roads are just as poorly designed as before, the increase has to originate elsewhere.

    Which doesn't mean that road design shouldn't improve. :)

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

    Specifically it looks like the biggest increases are on urban principal arterial and and urban minor arterial. I suspect larger vehicle sizes impact the trend on a broad scale, but consideration should be kept for increasing demand for urban arterial roads, and widening existing ones as metro areas continue to sprawl at more local scales.

    I'd be very interested to see the data on pedestrian deaths by road type contrasted to road infrastructure growth by type. The fact that Rural Principal arterial deaths practically disappeared around the same time that urban arterial deaths started significantly increasing could speak to a change in road classification or area designation between rural and suburban.

    Specifically Rural Arterial deaths decreased by 229 from 2014 to 2015. In the same year urban principal arterial increased by 231 Urban Minor Arterial increased by 136, and rural minor collector increased by 155. While it doesn't account for the entirety of the increase, I think there's enough there to look at how urban arterial roads are designed.

    Edit: Added specificity.

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