Walking Shouldn’t Be So Dangerous in the U.S.

Walking Shouldn’t Be So Dangerous in the U.S.

By Megha Satyanarayana

I like to walk. In my big southern city, it’s a good way to get some exercise when the weather is nice or to run a nearby errand without having to waste gas or deal with parking. I’m not alone; on the big street I typically take, other pedestrians are always around me, either out of necessity or pleasure.

But so are the cars, zooming down that same street. Drivers coast through stop signs or flat out ignore flashing, newly installed crosswalk lights at one major intersection. I’ve seen more near-misses at that intersection than I care to remember—drivers who screech to a halt for a pedestrian in the crosswalk while the yellow beacons blink above, or who swerve around walkers rather than simply stopping, or my favorite, the ones who just speed through the crosswalk, forcing pedestrians to stop or jump out of the way.

I’ve been one of those near misses. It was terrifying. My heart now pounds every time I get to that block. I keep waiting for a neighborhood alert that someone has been struck. Or killed. It’s so dumb that I have to worry about this. But I do. According to data analyzed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers in the latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, about 20 pedestrians are killed each day in the U.S. by someone driving a car. That was 7,522 pedestrians in 2022. Those researchers note that other countries’ pedestrian fatality rates are going down. Ours is really not.

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This is absurd. We should be able to walk in the U.S. without the fear of getting mowed down. But we can’t, largely because the problem has now become an ideological turf war. We cannot tamper with car culture, never mind its role in fueling climate change. People in rural areas do not walk, goes the thinking, so why do they need sidewalks? Never mind that 7.5 percent of rural residents said they do as a form of transportation, and 56 percent said they did for leisure. And as is often the case in this country, if an issue affects people who are poor, or not white, it’s not a problem worth solving.

We need to stop hitting people with our cars. To make this happen, the culture shift we need has to come from everywhere—public officials, drivers, automakers and government agencies. The U.S. Department of Transportation describes this as a Safe System Approach—everyone working together to reduce car-related fatalities. And it makes sense.

But, culturally, for this to really work, we must stop falling prey to ridiculous tribal cries that paint these problems in absolutes and keep us from making progress. Liberals drive SUVs. Conservatives want sidewalks. There is no us versus them if everyone remembers that we all want the same thing—the ability to walk when we need to, when we want to, safely. South Korea (through lower speed limits and public awareness campaigns) and Poland (through enforcement and bigger penalties on speeding) saw drastic drops in pedestrian death rates from 2013 to 2022. Why can’t we?

One of these absolutes is that idea that having walkable cities or towns means no cars, fewer cars, extra taxes or tolls on cars—basically any notion that feels like a punishment to car drivers. For many parts of the U.S., banishing cars simply isn’t realistic in the absence of comprehensive public transportation and high-density redesigns that often lack political or taxpayer backing. So can we make these places, both the rich and poor zip codes, more walkable by making those roads safer—better lighting, bigger sidewalks, more pronounced crosswalks? Yes, of course we can. This doesn’t mean those areas should eschew public transit and mixed-use development, but it does mean improving what’s there, in addition to developing something new.

Another notion that has to go is treating walkability as an enticement solely for yuppies, a box to check off when deciding what urban condo you want to rent. Walkability is a civil rights issue, something that people outside New York, San Francisco and other compact, dense cities deserve—safe streets to get to work, to school, to child care, to the store, whether on foot, wheelchair, whatever. Wider sidewalks and good lighting are fundamental. Too often we instead treat walkability as a marketing feature rather than a survival one, a promise broken to the least powerful people in our communities. And so where are the best sidewalks, the brightest lights and the biggest speed bumps in many cities in the U.S.? Not in the places that need them most.

Conversely, we treat cars as a necessity. But cars are increasingly expensive, even leaving aside tariff drama. Many Americans cannot afford a used car, let alone a new one. In February a typical car payment in the U.S. was $748. People can’t afford insurance. Gas. Repairs. Then, for people who can afford a car, older cars have fewer safety features on them, including the sensors that might warn of a possible collision. And while we drive, we are on our phones. In 2021, 644 pedestrians, cyclists and other people outside cars were killed by distracted drivers in the U.S.

During the last months of the Biden administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a new rule requiring cars to make design and safety changes to minimize head injuries in pedestrian collisions. The rule would especially apply to pickup trucks and large SUVs, the most popular cars in the U.S., and among the most dangerous. In November 2024, the Department of Transportation, which houses NHTSA, asked for more time for public comment. That comment period would have ended in mid-December. I asked the now-Trump-led NHTSA earlier this week what the status was of the rule—was it still in deliberation? They wouldn’t confirm and directed me to a docket page with more than 5,800 submitted comments but not much else. And automakers? Some argue that automatic braking systems are enough. The evidence suggests otherwise, showing that these larger cars are killing more pedestrians.

Where does this leave us? Public officials must understand where people need to walk and make those places safer. Drivers, fighting distraction and deadlines, must look out for pedestrians. Automakers must take pedestrian safety into account for once, calling off their lobbyists trying to block sensible regulations that would save lives. Walking is nonpartisan. Anyone who tells you differently needs to curb themselves.

This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.