Pedestrian safety

Improving the safety of pedestrians is an important issue. 300,000 people are killed each year due to being hit by road vehicles. The World Health Organization states that road traffic crashes are not inevitable; they are both predictable and preventable.^[1] Urban mobility policy and planning sometimes neglects walking.^[2]

Responsibility for pedestrian safety is historically contested. The idea that pedestrians are partially or wholly at fault for their injury by motorists arose in the early 20th century at least in part due to propaganda campaigns by auto lobbying groups. In some jurisdictions, these groups managed to criminalize a large category of pedestrian behaviors by introducing the concept of jaywalking.

History and assignment of blame

Bridget Driscoll is often identified as the first pedestrian killed by an automobile, having been knocked to the pavement by a demonstration vehicle outside London's Crystal Palace on 17 August 1896, and thereby dying of a head injury.^[3] Several years later on 14 September 1899, Henry Bliss became the first American killed by an automobile, having been crushed by a taxicab after exiting a trolley car in New York City.^[4]

The notion of pedestrian safety emerged in the early 20th century as the number of pedestrians dying under the tyre of the automobile grew exponentially in countries like the United States.^[5] Initially, the public generally viewed it as the motorist's responsibility to avoid hitting pedestrians.^[5] This view was contested by the apparatus of motordom, manifested by entities such as local chapters of what would become the American Automobile Association (AAA).^[5] These entities worked to shift some of the blame for burgeoning traffic deaths from drivers to pedestrians through multiple means.^[5] Agents of motordom, like Charlie Hayes of the Chicago Motor Club, propagandised the concept of jaywalking, which led to the criminalisation of many types of pedestrian street usage in jurisdictions that recognise the offence.^[5] Automobile "safety weeks" became venues for public shaming of pedestrians: a parade in New York City circa 1924 featured a clown, representing a jaywalker, being repeatedly struck from behind by a Model T.^[5]

AAA entered US traffic safety campaigns in the 1920s and became the leading provider of traffic safety information to schools.^[6] While independently run safety patrols made motorists stop for children in the street, AAA-operated safety patrols made children wait for the street to clear of cars before being allowed to cross.^[6] AAA also furnished materials such as coloring books inviting children to color in letters spelling out "The street is for autos".^[6] AAA's position is that drivers and pedestrians share the responsibility of keeping themselves and others on the road safe.^[7]

Western European and especially Nordic countries tend to assign more legal culpability to drivers for striking pedestrians than does the United States.^[8]: 48

Risks

Over 300000 pedestrians are killed each year in road crashes.^[9] Numbers vary widely between countries, and sometimes between cities in the same country. Poorer people tend to be killed more.^[1]: 5–7 In India, over 35000 were killed in 2023.^[10] The WHO says official statistics undercount the number killed in Africa, and estimates over 80000 were killed on the continent in 2021.^{[11]: 18–19}

Key risks for pedestrians are well known. Among the well-documented factors are driver behaviour (including speeding and drunk driving); missing infrastructure (including footpaths, crossings, and islands); and vehicle designs that are unforgiving to pedestrians struck by a vehicle.^[12] The Traffic Injury Research Foundation describes pedestrians as vulnerable road users because they are not protected in the same way as occupants of motor vehicles.^[13]

Most pedestrian injuries occur while they are crossing a street.^[12] In the United States, 20% of pedestrian crash fatalities are linked to jaywalking, defined as improper crossing of a roadway or intersection.^[14] Most crashes involving a pedestrian occur at night.^[12] Most pedestrian fatalities are caused by frontal impact. An adult pedestrian is struck by the car's front (for instance, the bumper touches their legs), accelerating the lower part of the body forward while "the upper body is rotated and accelerated relative to the car", at which point the pelvis and thorax are hit.^[12] Then the head hits the windscreen at the velocity of the striking car. The victim then falls to the ground.^[12]

The advent of SUVs is considered a leading cause;^[15] speculation of other factors includes population growth, driver distraction with mobile phones, poor street lighting, alcohol and drugs and speeding.^[16]

Cities have had mixed results in addressing pedestrian safety through Vision Zero plans: New York City has had success. 2024 analysis of Vision Zero road upgrades in New York found an immediate reduction of about 6% in pedestrian crash incidence.^[17]

Road design

It is well documented that a minor increase in speed might greatly increase the likelihood of a crash and exacerbate resulting casualties. For this reason, the recommended maximum speed is 30 km/h (20 mph) or 40 km/h (25 mph) in residential and high pedestrian traffic areas, with enforced traffic rules on speed limits and traffic-calming measures.^[12]

Signs and signals

Shorter pedestrian wait times at signalised crossings reduce the likelihood of people walking on red (crossing the road against a signal), which improves safety.^[19]: 32

Vehicle design

Sociology

In the aftermath of a pedestrian-involved collision in the US, journalists often report that the pedestrian "darted" into the road, using language based on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC), which police use to categorise each crash.^[25] The MMUCC defines dart or dash to mean a non-motorist suddenly entering from off the roadway.^[26] Examining federally reported crash data between 2017 and 2021, the policy director for the League of American Bicyclists questioned the plausibility of the aggregate statistic that there were 150 instances of pedestrians over the age of 75 who "darted" or "dashed" into the street before being killed in a crash.^[25]

While some reports in Africa use the word "accident", the WHO says "crash" should be preferred, as the former obscures the preventable nature of road deaths.^[27] The WHO and Bloomberg Philanthropies underwrote a study of 1000 news articles in five countries in Anglophone Africa, finding that "news in Africa typically obscures the fact that road deaths are preventable. News reports largely also fail to cover more systemic causes of road deaths such as poor infrastructure and inadequate laws, regulations and law enforcement."^[27]

Controversy exists over the extent to which criticising pedestrian behaviours constitutes victim blaming.^[8]: 52 Separately from jaywalking, which is a criminalised act in some countries, pedestrian victims of traffic crashes are also faulted for acts that are not illegal, such as not making eye contact with motorists, not giving way to motorists even when the pedestrian has right of way, wearing clothing deemed inappropriate, or wearing headphones.^[8]: 52 Media reports of pedestrian fatalities usually repeat uncritically the narrative from police accounts, and minimise the role of the motorist by passive voice constructions or by transferring grammatical agency from the motorist to the vehicle.^{[8]: 52–55}

Seasonality

In Europe, pedestrian fatalities have a seasonal factor, with 6% of annual fatalities occurring in April but 13% (twice more) in December. The reason for such a change might be complex.^[28]

See also

• List of countries by traffic-related death rate
• Traffic light control and coordination

Further reading

• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Improving Pedestrian Safety at Night. The National Academies Press.

References