Christina Caron and Niraj Chokshi

An estimated 6,227 pedestrians were killed in traffic in 2018, according to the study from the Governors Highway Safety Association, a projection based on data from the first half of the year. That figure represents a striking rise from a decade earlier, when 4,109 pedestrians were killed in traffic.

“I’ve been in this business for 36 years and I’ve never seen a pattern like this,” said Richard Retting, who wrote the report and has worked in a variety of traffic engineering and safety roles for the New York City Department of Transportation, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and other federal and local transportation agencies.

The report cited alcohol use, speeding, unsafe infrastructure and the prevalence of SUVs as some of the biggest problems contributing to the fatalities. It also suggested that the increased use of smartphones may contribute to such deaths.

“We can’t say in any definitive way that the amount of wireless data and the amount of smartphone use is an exact cause, but the relationship is uncanny and it’s not unrelated,” Retting said. “The fact is that many, many smartphones are used while people are driving cars.”

With smartphone use on the rise, both drivers and pedestrians are at risk of being increasingly distracted. According to the report, the number of smartphones in active use increased more than fivefold between 2009 and 2017 and was matched by an even larger increase in annual wireless data traffic.

Some of the increase can be attributed to population growth, but that was not the largest factor, according to Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “That doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable,” he added.

“We are driving more and driving deadlier cars,” said Emiko Atherton, director of the National Complete Streets Coalition.

Also of concern: City dwellers who cannot afford to drive are being pushed into suburbs that are not designed to be walkable, Atherton said.

“When you combine high-speed, high-volume roads with sprawl, it’s a perfect recipe for death,” she added.

In recent years, cities across the country have worked to tackle the problem, adopting “Vision Zero” plans, modeled on a successful Swedish initiative of the same name, with the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities outright. But while many cities have made progress toward that goal, pedestrian deaths have proved difficult to eradicate.

In New York, for example, overall traffic deaths fell to their lowest levels in more than a century last year, though pedestrian deaths increased, mirroring the longer-term trend nationwide. The last time the number of pedestrian deaths in the country was higher was 1990, when 6,482 people were killed.

Nationally, overall traffic deaths fell 6 percent from 2008 to 2017, but pedestrian deaths rose 35 percent over that same period.

“Vehicles are becoming safer, but as pedestrians we don’t have that same armor protecting us,” Adkins said.

Many of those deaths are occurring at night. From 2008 to 2017, the number of nighttime pedestrian fatalities increased by 45 percent while daytime pedestrian fatalities increased by 11 percent.

A 2016 analysis in New York found that daylight saving time contributed to the problem: Earlier sunsets and darkness in the fall and winter were linked to more pedestrian traffic fatalities. In response, the city has since instated an awareness campaign to remind drivers of the increased risk during winter.

In its effort to reduce pedestrian deaths, the city has focused on what the data show, redesigning particularly dangerous streets, reducing speed limits and even giving pedestrians a head start over vehicles when crossing streets, according to Polly Trottenberg, New York’s transportation commissioner.

“It’s geography, it’s seasonality and time of day, it’s speed management, it’s driver behavior,” she said.

Five states accounted for nearly half of the projected deaths: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Texas.

Florida is the deadliest state for pedestrians, according to a January report from the National Complete Streets Coalition, a program within the nonprofit advocacy group Smart Growth America. But it has made considerable strides toward reducing pedestrian deaths, Retting said.

For example, he said, the state has invested $100 million to improve lighting in about 2,500 locations throughout the state to make it easier to see pedestrians using or crossing roads at night.

“That’s the kind of action that’s called for,” Retting said.

The state also recently overhauled its roadway design manual with a renewed focus on “putting the right road in the right place,” said DeWayne Carver, who manages the state’s Complete Streets program. Florida has also put a pedestrian and bicycle safety plan in place.

Such infrastructure improvements are keys to improving safety, he said, but technological improvements can help, too.

Last year, for example, the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that Subaru’s collision-avoidance system, EyeSight, led to a 35 percent reduction in pedestrian-related insurance claims.

“One of the things we can do as consumers and as a nation is to get this kind of technology in every car,” Retting said.

The National Complete Streets Coalition report ranked states and metropolitan areas using a calculation called the Pedestrian Danger Index, which controls for the number of people who live in the state as well as the number of people who walk to work.

Florida cities accounted for eight of the 10 most dangerous metropolitan areas for walking, and the state itself ranked first in the nation with 5,433 pedestrian deaths between 2008 and 2017.

The problem of pedestrian fatalities is nearly as old as the car itself. In early 1886, Karl Benz, of Germany, applied for a patent on what is often credited as the first gas-powered automobile. A decade later, Bridget Driscoll became its first pedestrian victim, according to Guinness World Records.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/us/pedestrian-deaths.html" id="0e4656a7-0955-363f-ac3d-8bfeb44d7989">The New York Times</a>.

The number of pedestrians killed in traffic in the United States is approaching a three-decade high, contributing to what has been an “alarming rise” in such deaths in recent years, according to a new study.

Pedestrian Deaths in U.S. Approach Highest Number in Nearly 30 Years, Study Shows

In recent years, cities across the country have worked to tackle the problem, adopting “Vision Zero” plans with the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities outright. But while many cities have made progress toward that goal, pedestrian deaths have proved difficult to eradicate.

In New York, for example, overall traffic deaths fell to their lowest levels in more than a century last year, though pedestrian deaths increased, mirroring the longer-term trend nationwide.

Florida ranked first in the nation with 5,433 pedestrian deaths between 2008 and 2017.

A 2016 analysis in New York found that the end of daylight saving time contributed to the problem: Earlier sunsets and darkness in the fall and winter were linked to more pedestrian traffic fatalities. In response, the city has since instated an awareness campaign to remind drivers of the increased risk during winter.

Five states accounted for nearly half the projected deaths: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Texas.

This article originally appeared in <a id="67150ad2-2ff4-4495-bb00-590431755aef" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/us/pedestrian-deaths.html">The New York Times</a>.

Pedestrian deaths in U.S. approach highest number in nearly 30 years, study shows

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Christina Caron and Niraj Chokshi

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Pedestrian Deaths in U.S. Approach Highest Number in Nearly 30 Years, Study Shows

Pedestrian Deaths in U.S. Approach Highest Number in Nearly 30 Years, Study Shows

Pedestrian deaths in U.S. approach highest number in nearly 30 years, study shows