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When residents cross the street, they rarely think about how they’re risking their lives — and yet, often, that’s exactly what’s happening. In the first half of 2025, drivers killed 3,024 pedestrians on streets throughout the nation.
The rate of pedestrian deaths fluctuates annually, but the latest statistics show a 2.5% increase from pre-pandemic numbers. It’s enough to get the attention of elected officials and engineers in cities and towns who recognize safety as a priority in their communities.
“It’s about saving lives,” said David L. Anderson, a Councilman in Dover, Delaware. “We really want to see what we can do in a smart way to make our streets safer for people.”
Delaware averages a pedestrian-related crash every day, with the number of deaths rising 80% from 2009 to 2023, but other cities are more dangerous for people walking along the roads. Memphis, Tennessee, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona, top the list of metropolitan areas with the highest fatality rates.
In fact, anywhere in the United States where pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars share space presents risks. Pedestrian safety isn’t a simple problem to solve — something Councilman Anderson learned recently.
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Despite his collaboration with the Dover Police Department, a pedestrian safety proposal he presented to the council recently failed to pass. Part of the plan included creating a legal framework to keep people from standing too long in roadway medians. Some members of the community interpreted it as a means of criminalizing homelessness, and the majority of the council voted against the measure.
“We’ll bring it back,” he said. “It’s an important issue, because people are getting hurt.”
Elected officials and traffic engineers in Philadelphia have also been working on this issue, with the first traffic safety action plan approved almost a decade ago. They adopted the goal of an international movement called Vision Zero, which has a moonshot goal of no traffic-related deaths.
“At the very core of our traffic safety effort is the idea that loss of life on the roads is preventable and unacceptable,” said Marco Gorini, the city’s Vision Zero Program Manager. “We’re asking our government and our community to shift the idea of what is possible.”
In Philadelphia, Mr. Gorini said, it’s three times more likely to be killed by a car than in New York City. There are many reasons for this, and many phases of improvement, he explained.
One reason is New York City’s public transportation system. It’s one of the most used public transit systems in the nation, and it’s significantly safer than driving, bicycling, or walking. Another reason is speed cameras, he added.
“Speed is fundamental. Slowing vehicles down is the single most effective way to reduce the severity of crashes and prevent those deaths,” he said.
Of course, just like with Councilman Anderson’s initiative, reducing speeds and adding speed humps and other traffic-calming infrastructure can elicit significant backlash. Educating drivers is part of the solution.
“At 20 miles per hour, if a crash occurs and someone is hit, there is a one in 10 chance of a fatality,” Mr. Gorini said. “At 30 miles per hour, it’s a 50% chance. At 40 miles per hour, it’s a nine in 10 chance.”
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While reducing speed is the most effective way to reduce pedestrian deaths, it’s far from the only strategy. In Philadelphia, they’ve also studied and begun implementing a plan to separate pedestrians and bicyclists from traffic. This work includes dedicated bicycle lanes, improved pedestrian crossings, and better-connected sidewalks.
“You need to make sure where you have a lot of pedestrian generators, like places with (public) transit or around schools or downtown, it’s fully connected,” Mr. Gorini said. “Anticipate where people are walking.”
This was the idea that Councilman Anderson said propelled his plan. He said people were approaching cars from the medians, and other pedestrians were jaywalking to avoid certain intersections as a result.
“We are taking a variety of approaches,” he said. “It’s not as easy as sitting down and creating a planned community. Ours organically grew over 350 years. Cars are vital for the economic well-being of communities like ours, which won’t ever have the public transportation piece.”
He said another way to keep pedestrians safe in Dover involved using high-tech crosswalks, which were first installed near the high school. Signs start flashing when a person approaches, making it less likely that people will jaywalk and more likely that drivers will stop. Councilmembers passed a law requiring drivers to yield, too.
He also wants to make sure the lights are timed to allow pedestrians to comfortably cross the street — especially on highways, where speeds are highest.
In Philadelphia, they’ve focused educational efforts on children, who are involved in four crashes every week in the city.
“Safe Routes Philadelphia focuses lesson plans around pedestrian and bicycle safety … so kids learn how to be safe road users,” Mr. Gorini said.
A secret to better pedestrian safety, like most things in government, is collaboration. In Philadelphia, the Vision Zero strategy includes the creation of a task force consisting of elected officials and city department heads. They meet quarterly and offer direction to five subcommittees that implement the specific elements of the work.
Collaboration is important for funding, too. The city highlights partnerships when applying for state and federal grant opportunities, including revenue from speed camera tickets funneled through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Councilman Anderson said they’ve had to fund many traffic-calming improvements through the general coffers. In past years, they received more than $1 million in state grants, he said.
Investments in new infrastructure, as well as new proposals for speed reductions, are easier with community approval, Mr. Gorini said. He recommends that community leaders looking to implement a Vision Zero strategy start by listening to residents and prioritizing the most dangerous areas.
“Community input was critical,” he explained. “We had a 12-month outreach process with 80 community groups in total to dig into the types of tactics and strategies that the city could use in the next five years,” he said. “We also did ground truthing with a market research study with 2,000 Philadelphia residents polled.”
While people recognize the problem of pedestrian safety concerns, it still requires a focused effort from many government agencies and support from elected officials to keep pedestrians safe.
“Our goal is to eliminate serious deaths by 2050,” Mr. Gorini said. “We want to get there even faster.”
