[B’ Spokes: Have you noticed how few places in Maryland have high-visibility crosswalks? There is a reason why we have the forth highest pedestrian fatality rate. Those that were worse are making improvements mentioned in this article.]
by Tamara Redmon, Dan Gelinne, Leah Walton, and Jeff Miller, FHWA
FHWA’s aggressive approach to reducing the fatality rate in
13 States and 5 municipalities is showing promising results.
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| Focus cities have installed high-visibility crosswalks, such as this one in Montclair, NJ, in a number of locations to improve pedestrian safety. |
For the past 7.5 years, the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) has been trying to aggressively reduce pedestrian deaths by focusing
extra resources on the States and cities with the highest numbers or rates of
pedestrian fatalities. In recent years, 13 States experienced pedestrian
fatalities above 150 per year and above the national rate of 2.5 per 100,000
population. In 2003 those States were Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia,
Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, and Texas. An increase in Nevada’s rate later added it to the
list, while Michigan dropped off in 2007. In addition, five cities had the
highest number of fatalities per year: Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; Los Angeles,
CA; New York, NY; and Phoenix, AZ. Washington, DC, later went on the list, and
Detroit dropped off (only to rejoin in 2011).
To address this challenge,
FHWA’s Focused Approach to Pedestrian Safety project began with a memorandum
dated May 2004 outlining the goal of reducing pedestrian fatalities by 10
percent by the year 2008 (goal later changed to 2011).
…
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/12janfeb/03.cfmoldId.20120320154807186