Politics & Government

Pedestrian Deaths Mounting in Tampa Bay Area

Tampa Bay ranks second in a new report on the most dangerous U.S. cities for pedestrians. North Nebraska and West Waters avenues have been particularly deadly in Central Tampa.

More than a dozen pedestrians have been killed in Central Tampa since 2001, part of an unsettling trend in Florida and the Tampa Bay area. 

The Tampa Bay area ranked as the second most dangerous metropolitan area for pedestrians in the United States in a new report from Transportation for America, a nonprofit campaign for safe travel. 

Among the 52 metropolitan areas studied, four of the five most dangerous are in Florida:

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1. Orlando-Kissimmee 

2. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater

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3. Jacksonville

4. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach

5. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario CA

Florida led the nation in the number of pedestrians killed per capita in both 2008 and 2009, the two most recent years for which statistics are available, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Hillsborough County was the 20th most dangerous in Florida in 2009, with 32 pedestrians killed, or slightly less than three out of every 100,000 people.

As part of its report, Transportation for America published a searchable map of pedestrian deaths from 2001 through 2009. It lists more than a dozen deaths in Central Tampa, many of them on North Nebraska, West Waters and East Hillsborough avenues.

This week, The New York Times followed a mother and her children running across a six-lane highway in Orlando, which the newspaper cast as a typical wide Florida road built for cars, not people. Children and the elderly are particularly at risk of misjudging when it's safe to cross, the Times reported.

How can the pedestrian experience be improved without creating an unnecessary inconvenience for motorists? Transportation for America suggested in a report in May [PDF, see page 38] that improving road connections on the neighborhood-to-neighborhood level would keep traffic in neighborhoods and off main roads. That would make biking and walking more convenient and decrease traffic on major roads, the report concluded, thereby decreasing the need for construction and subsequent delays on those roads.

In Orlando, communities have added sidewalks and audible signals for pedestrians, and the city has improved bus stops, built overpasses and improved lighting where possible, the New York Times said in its report this week. Two other steps toward safety the newspaper highlighted in Orlando were narrow roads, which encourage slow speeds, and bike trails.

In 2010, the Florida Department of Transportation released its Hillsborough Countywide Pedestrian Safety Action Plan to help local government agencies focus on pedestrian crash issues and provide "a set of proven engineering, enforcement, education and emergency medical services strategies," according to the report. It contains an action plan to address infrastructure, education and enforcement, land use, coordination and funding.


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