Thumbnail: While a record number of murders grabbed the headlines, there was also a record number of pedestrian fatalities. Memphis is now the third most dangerous place for pedestrians in the U.S.
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My recent posts featured a couple that were about the trend toward safer streets through their closings in cities across the U.S. and this movement is picking up steam in dozens of cities.
They don’t include Memphis and that’s despite an epidemic in street racing and speeding.
It’s no wonder the city is #3 for most dangerous cities for pedestrians.
According to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, 2020 was the deadliest year on its record for pedestrian/cyclist deaths in Shelby County. In 2020, 66 pedestrians and 5 cyclists were hit and killed.
That’s up from 2019 when 38 pedestrians were killed. Cyclist deaths in 2019 were unlisted, but advocates for road safety believe it was lower than 2020 numbers.
The record number of murders and record number of pedestrian fatalities in 2020 gives new meaning to the mean streets of Memphis,
There is plan after plan to reduce violent crime, but little is said about a plan to address pedestrian fatalities and how decisions can be made within a smart framework that would inform decisions like the incredulous one to reopen Riverside Drive.
The Index
Here are the rankings of places based on their Pedestrian Danger Index:
- Orlando/Kissimmee/Sanford – 295
- Bakersfield, CA – 293
- Memphis, TN – 261
- Palm Bay/Melbourne/Titusville, FL – 260.9
- Deltona/Daytona Beach/Ormond Beach – 260
- North Port/Sarasota/Bradenton – 248
- Jackson, MS – 237.8
- Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater – 222.9
- Lakeland/Winter Haven, FL – 214.6
- Jacksonville – 204.7
- Cape Coral/Fort Myers – 192.5
- Albuquerque – 174.1
- Miami/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach – 171.9
- Greensville/Anderson/Mauldin SC – 169.3
- Stockton/Lodi CA – 168
- Baton Rouge – 164.7
- Birmingham/Hoover – 159.1
- Houston/The Woodlands/Sugar Land – 157.5
- Atlanta/Sandy Springs/Roswell – 152.3
- El Paso – 150.6T
Other cities of interest are:
- Louisville/Jefferson County – 130.7
33. Detroit/Warren/Dearborn – 127.9
34. Charlotte/Gastonia – 126.9
39. Oklahoma City – 110.6
43. Knoxville – 100.0
45. St. Louis – 95.6
48. New Orleans/Metairie – 87.9
51. Chattanooga – 77.5
54. Baltimore/Columbia/Towson – 71.2
71. Cincinnati – 47.5
82. Cleveland/Elyria – 39.1
93. New York City/Jersey City/Newark – 28.3
100. Provo – 14.8
The Pedestrian Danger Index measures how deadly it is for people to walk based on the number of people struck and killed by drivers. This includes deaths between 2010 and 2019 from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a national database of all fatal traffic crashes.
Source: Dangerous by Design 2021
