NEVER REACHING THE OTHER SIDE: Land use plays a huge role in pedestrian freeway fatalities.

AuthorCicchino, Jessica
PositionPUBLIC SAFETY

AFTER A FIFTH PEDESTRIAN was killed in 2019 crossing Interstate 35 in Austin, Texas, a local headline expressed the city's frustration. "Why Does It Keep Happening?" the local ABC affiliate asked. By the end of the year, the death toll had reached 13.

Austin is not alone in wondering why this happens and what can be done about it. In recent years, more than 800 pedestrians annually have been killed on U.S. interstates and other freeways. The largest number of them were hit attempting to cross in urban areas, a study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) finds.

The researchers zoomed in on California for a more-detailed analysis and found that most of the fatal crossing crashes there occur where the freeway separates residential areas from commercial and other nonresidential sections.

Many U.S. cities have interstates or other major highways cutting through them and separating neighborhoods. Planning decisions made decades ago are difficult to undo, but communities can take practical steps to keep pedestrians safe. The findings suggest that localities with residential communities across the freeway from shopping centers, bus stations, or entertainment districts should consider physical barriers that prevent pedestrians from crossing--especially if the commercial centers include bars or liquor stores.

Indeed, a fence along the median to discourage crossers is one of the changes Austin police would like to see on 1-35. Most of those killed crossing 1-35 are homeless people, who often live in tents or makeshift dwellings on the roadside, says Detective Patrick Oborski of the Austin Police Department. Over the years, he also has seen many fatalities at Capital Plaza near 51st street, where there are low-income hotels and motels on one side of the freeway and fast food restaurants on the other. "That's one of the areas that's consistently been a hot spot for us," Oborski notes.

Across the country, pedestrian fatalities increased 53% from 2009-18 and now account for 17% of traffic deaths. Pedestrian fatalities on interstates and other high-speed, controlled-access roads increased by 60% over the same period. From 2015-18 more than 800 pedestrians were killed on such roadways annually.

To get a clearer picture of when, where, and why those deaths are occurring, researchers analyzed statistics from the Federal database of fatal motor vehicle crashes over 2015-17. They looked at various crash characteristics, such as whether the...

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