GHSA previously issued a report finding that 3,434 pedestrians were killed on U.S. roadways in the first half of 2022, based on preliminary data reported by State Highway Safety Offices. A second report analyzing state-reported data for all of 2022 found that roadways continue to be incredibly deadly for pedestrians. There were 2.37 pedestrian deaths per billion vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 2022, up yet again and continuing a troubling trend of elevated rates that began in 2020.
The report also includes an analysis of 2021 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System to provide additional context on when, where and how drivers strike and kill people on foot. This analysis uncovered a shocking safety disparity for people walking: Pedestrian deaths rose a troubling 77% between 2010 and 2021, compared to a 25% rise in all other traffic fatalities. The data analysis was conducted by Elizabeth Petraglia, Ph.D., of research firm Westat.
To combat this pedestrian safety crisis, GHSA supports a comprehensive solution based on the Safe System approach outlined in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS). Each of the five elements of this approach – safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads and post-crash care – contribute in different but overlapping ways to provide a multi-layered safety net that can protect people on foot as well as other road users. The report includes examples of how states are utilizing Safe System principles to improve pedestrian safety.
You shouldn’t automatically get the right to drive SUVs just because you have a license.
This seems to match another trend that I feel like I’ve been seeing (though no real evidence). I know as we get older everything always seems to get worse, more expensive, shorter, etc. Though I genuinely feel like a lot of drivers are getting worse. I imagine it’s due to an increase of instant gratification and heightened sense of entitlement. “IT’S MY TURN! YOU’RE GOING TOO SLOW! I’M GOING FASTER, I DESERVE TO BE IN FRONT OF YOU! I’M TRYING TO GET TO (some destination that’s probably very similar to everyone else’s destination) AND IT’S URGENT!”
Weirdly my range of responses have also increased. They range from ‘unreasonable anger that someone can feel such entitlement’ to ‘oh well, I half expected that to happen’. I try to lean towards the latter, which actually helps me to be a better driver. I usually always say ‘a safe driver is a predictable driver’, but also supplement that with ‘just assume everyone around you is stupid and will make bad decisions’. Ironically, the bad drivers tend to be the most easily predictable.
A large factor is probably the increase of phone use. I’ve walked into a lot of shit looking at my phone.
A large factor is probably the increase of phone use. I’ve driven into a lot of shit looking at my phone.
A large factor is probably the increase of phone use. I’ve flown into a lot of shit looking at my phone.
Also I think a large factor is phone use. I’ve walked into a lot of posts with one
SUVs, SUVs, SUVs and a dash of ridiculous sized pick ups.
Stop the madness!
Not just that but people just do not fucking care anymore. I have to walk into lots of large stores for my job and it’s almost every lot some asshole has to speed through so they don’t have to wait for somebody walking into the store. Even had some asshole run their car up right next to me then stop just before hitting me and when I stopped he was just smiling at me. Fuckers like that belong in jail threatening people with a vehicle.
This timeframe also coincides with smartphones becoming ubiquitous. I’d be shocked if that isn’t also a factor.
There’s nothing more dangerous than someone in a vehicle too big for the road AND driving distracted. They might as well be firing off a machine gun into a crowd of people.
Some states don’t even have laws to dissuade their use.
What timeframe? From 2019 to current? That feels really late for “smartphones becoming ubiquitous”.
That’s a zero, not a nine.
Absolutely
Do you think it’s more cuz of drivers on their phones, pedestrians on their phone or equal parts both?
Drivers on their phones are more responsible for avoiding pedestrians than pedestrians are for trying to avoid vehicles since vehicles are large and deadly and supposedly require a license to drive. In addition to that, a pedestrian on a phone will be moving relatively slow compared to a distracted driver, and it is far easier to avoid hitting a pedestrian than it is to avoid getting run over by a car moving at an unsafe speed.
Drivers are always at fault unless a pedestrian leaps in front of them intentionally or the sidewalk is close enough to traffic that tripping and falling would end up in the path of a vehicle. The latter would be the fault of the street design if an attentive driver hit a pedestrian.
Drivers.
I think pedestrians on their phones doesn’t help, but a far larger portion would be distracted drivers. As others have stated, it’s far easier to avoid hitting a pedestrian then it is to avoid being hit by a driver.
Drivers, even extremely alert pedestrians can’t dodge two tonns of steel moving at 110.
Exactly. The responsibility lies with the person in control of the vehicle, if for no other reason than they are surrounded by a metal cage and will suffer little in a crash with a pedestrian.
Most collisions with pedestrians usually happen in cities where there are no cars driving at 110kph. For 99% of cases this can be avoided by paying attention to your surroundings. This applies to both drivers and pedestrians. I “save” the life of several people a year by not driving over them when they just blindly step on the road apparently assuming what ever moves there is going to always see them and stop. For the vast majority of time this is the case but then there’s an exception an now you’re dead.
In general people crossing the road can be divided into three groups. Group A looks both ways before crossing so that they don’t get hit by a car. Group B looks after they’ve already stepped on the road to see what kind of car they’re getting hit by and group C doesn’t even care and just stares forward.
Also, absolutely awful public spaces that make it dangerous to be a pedestrian. I’ve been living in Barcelona for the past few months and it’s fucking amazing over here by comparison to Canada & the US.
One of the reasons is probably the same why Tesla isn’t releasing their Cybertruck outside of the us - the Crash-Tests there just don’t factor in pedestrian survival rates if they are hit by the car that you want to release on the market. Most of those giant trucks don’t make it here because they’d just run over any pedestrian they hit without them having any chance of survival even at low speeds.
Add to that the totally car-centered infrastructure that basically punishes everyone not in a car and you have the perfect storm for dead pedestrians and bikers…
Something I’ve thought about recently that I don’t think gets mentioned enough is the raising of speed limits across the board. You have a car centric infrastructure operating along neglected (and sometimes non-existent) pedestrian paths and the speed limits keep going higher.
Long way of saying “Nobody outside the US has the right combination of gullibility and unfathomably poor taste to buy such a ghastly monstrosity” 😂
Oh I’m sure there are. I see more and more idiots with big American trucks here in the Netherlands. They completely don’t fit in our cities designed for normal sized cars. I also don’t see how they’re considered safe. The top of their hood is so high that you’ll mostly get hit by the grill on the front upon impact.
I also doubt most of those people really need one, they seem more like the type of people that compensate away their insecurities by having a big truck. I can sort of see a farmer or something using one, but in a city I don’t understand it. I guess they’re not banned because that’d upset the US or something.
That plus gas is more expensive in other countries, it’s hard to justify buying something that’s going to get 20 MPG at best.
A properly modified Jeep Patriot (2010-2014 models, I dunno about the others) can easily get 35mpg city/ 50mpg highway. You do have to keep the car clean, and make sure the tach stays between 1000-2000 at all times, but with the CVT the second part is easy.
You have to replace the air, and fuel filters with good filters, I used K&N. You also have to replace the spark plugs and plug wires with some “mid grade” plugs and wires. I also gave the thing a K&N oil filter, but I don’t think that’s necessary.
No doubt but I see mostly F150s and similar around here.
For the F150:
“The standard 3.3-liter V6 engine gets up to 20mpg city and 24 highway MPG, and the optional, more powerful 5.0L V8 engine gets up to 17 MPG in the city and 24 highway miles per gallon.”
That’s a tough sell when you’re paying $4-5 a gallon in Europe.
I remember when the ol’ Honda Fit marketing material list “pedestrian safety” as an actual feature. Cars these days are complete opposite, they’ll turn pedestrian into mincemeat.
Now they’re “pedestrian proof”.
I think that the new blindingly bright headlights play a large part in the massive upswing in nighttime deaths. I have pretty much given up driving at night. Practically every vehicle coming the other way blinds me for at least 20 seconds. I was driving purely by watching the outer lane marker on the ground to my right. It’s just too dangerous to continue. Don’t even get me started on the morons in lifted trucks that get 10 ft behind you and blast all 3 mirrors until you can somehow, without being able to see, get out of their way.
But why would pedestrian deaths go up if they’re being more illuminated?
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Edit: digging in further, increased homelessness is also called out as a possible reason. I know in my area there are a LOT more unhoused people wandering around at night and sleeping on very dangerous stroads.
Because other drivers are blinded…
What the hell is going on in Arizona and New Mexico? They have much higher rates of pedestrian fatalities than adjoining states.
Well, you’ll probably get away with it.
Wait, how did it go UP in 2020? Do you guys remember 2020? How could you possibly get run over by a car in 2020? Did the twelve people who still got to drive to places try extra hard? What the hell?
That does seem very suspect. Maybe it’s adjusted for miles driven? Even though less driving happened, per mile driven the rate still increased.
Plenty of blue collar workers didn’t get the “luxury” of staying home. I think the only time I was staying home was for a few weeks as a temporary layoff cause there wasn’t enough work to do, not because of any kind of safeguarding.
Yeah, I remember 2020 – the 5 weeks I got off were glorious. That’ll never happen again.
Combine that with people generally being a lot more lax with regards to following traffic laws and pedestrians who are expecting cars less, you’ve got a recipe for distatser.
I worked through COVID and drove a lot - I was a custom integrator (yeah…that was deemed “essential”) stopping at 1-4 homes per day. I’m less surprised by there being enough vehicles to kill with than there being enough pedestrians to hit. Seeing more than one or two people on the way to a client’s house was rare
Driving downtown from the office took 12 minutes. For context, it was usually a 45-60 minute ride. Barely anyone was on the road and I never had issues parking
Empty roads = no traffic = idiot drivers driving extra fast and careless
Yes, they did. I had to be on the roads a bit at the height of the pandemic due to my job. Far fewer people were driving, but basically all of them were driving like absolute raving lunatics. People were acting under the assumption that cops wouldn’t be out (which was probably true, on average) so therefore laws just didn’t exist anymore.
I also notice that a highly visible subset of drivers have continued to behave this way even after the return to “normal.” They’re usually identifiable by the ownership of a Nissan Altima with haphazardly applied window tint, often spotted squeezing up the shoulder to run a red light into traffic without bothering to look first.
That or a Dodge Ram
The callout for homelessness is not one I expected to see. Half of Hawaii’s deaths pedestrian are of homeless people.
