Improve roads for walkers, too
Pedestrians in Smithtown Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Fully two-thirds of the pedestrians killed nationally over the last decade died on roads that get federal funding. So, when we spend the nation's money on roads, the law should do more to make sure they're designed for the safety not only of drivers, but also of pedestrians.
The perils of walking were the subject of a report last week by the advocacy group Transportation for America. It said that more than 47,700 pedestrians died, 67 percent on federal-aid roads, from 2000-2009. Nassau and Suffolk ranked third and fourth in New York in average pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 persons. In Nassau, 31.3 percent of traffic deaths were pedestrians; in Suffolk, 19.7 percent.
In that period, fatalities of drivers and passengers were down 27 percent nationally, thanks to such efforts as drunk-driving and distracted-driving crackdowns. Unfortunately, pedestrian deaths declined less: just 14 percent.
How can we make pedestrian safety improve as fast as driver-passenger safety? We can spend federal and state dollars more wisely.
For decades, the top priority has been moving as many cars as possible. Now, in light of these statistics and the greater emphasis on the health benefits of walking, we need to place a higher priority on pedestrian safety when we design new roads and upgrade existing ones.
Bills in Albany and Washington move in that direction. Let's get them going at expressway speed, so that we can save more lives of people just trying to walk from here to there.
