- October 7, 2024
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How bad are our roads for pedestrians?
According to Smart Growth America, the answer is deadly. The organization’s Dangerous by Design 2024 report — which ranks the largest 101 metro areas by pedestrian fatalities — found that the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach metro area remains one of most dangerous in the U.S. The report, released on Thursday, May 30, found that 82% of all metro areas have gotten more deadly over time.
Despite this, numbers in the local metro area have improved slightly. The Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach metro area was ranked as the deadliest in the country in Smart Growth America’s 2022 report, with an average of 4.25 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people a year. Now further down the list — and tied for fifth most deadly with Baton Rouge, Louisiana — the local metro area is averaging 3.96 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people. A total of 134 pedestrians died between 2018 and 2022, but that is still an increase from the 107 pedestrian deaths reported from 2013 to 2017.
“The number of people hit by a vehicle and killed while walking has surged by 57% in a decade,” said Beth Osborne, vice president of Transportation and Thriving Communities at Smart Growth America in a press release. “It’s a 40-year high and has gone from bad to worse in most places. If you compare the most deadly places for pedestrians in our 2009 report, today dozens of metro areas are far more dangerous, surpassing previous tragic highs.”
In 2022, the most recent year with complete federal data, 7,522 pedestrians killed, marking a 40-year high, Smart Growth America reports. In 2013, 4,779 deaths were reported. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control, which helps fund the Dangerous by Design report, documented 137,325 visits to the emergency room for pedestrian injuries between 2021 and 2023.
“The only way to truly stop this epidemic is to make safety improvements in road design,” Smart Growth America’s press release states. “Roads are often designed to prioritize speed for vehicles rather than safety. Crosswalks are regularly missing or too far apart, intersections are difficult to cross on foot, and many turn lanes encourage going around corners quickly, which can pose a hazard. Many places people regularly walk have zero sidewalks.”
been 119 pedestrian deaths reported in Volusia County, according to data provided to the Observer. Of those, nine happened within the city of Ormond Beach.
“I’m disappointed to see us on the list,” Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington said. “Obviously, it’s a list nobody wants to be on.”
However, since becoming aware of the issue, Partington said the city has been working with the Florida Department of Transportation and the Transportation Planning Organization to implement pedestrian safety projects in the city.
Of the nine deaths reported since 2019, four occurred that year and two in 2020. Only one pedestrian death was reported annually in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
“We’re making progress and I think the numbers bear that out,” Partington said. “But of course, the target is zero, because no death is acceptable.”
Zero is at least one more year away; On Jan. 29, a 71-year-old woman was killed by a car while crossing A1A at 100 S. Atlantic Ave.
At the time, FDOT had recently begun a $4 million crosswalk project in that area. Now completed, eight mid-block crossings were added to A1A from Granada Boulevard to Milsap Road and the speed limit was lowered from 35 mph to 30 mph. One of the planned crosswalks, the one at Bosarvey Drive, was constructed just feet away from where the woman was killed.
Currently, FDOT is working on a $9.2 million road safety project that will narrow Granada Boulevard travel lanes in the downtown — not including the bridge. The project, which spans from U.S. 1 to A1A, is aimed to encourage slower driving speeds. A new mid-block pedestrian crossing is also being added between Vining Court and Bovard Avenue.
FDOT is also planning to start construction this fall on a pedestrian safety project on A1A from Granada Boulevard to Roberta Road in Ormond-by-the-Sea.
Five other projects, including safety improvements for Nova Road between Granada Boulevard and U.S. 1, are currently in a design phase. That one is a critical project, the mayor said.
“When you have more than four lanes people feel ... like they can go as fast as they want, and it creates a dangerous situation,” Partington said. “And there are people who try to cross to get to The Trails Shopping Center and it just creates conflict points where you’re going to have problems if we can’t figure out a way to make it safer for people.”
driving, and speeding, are all contributing factors to pedestrian deaths, Partington said.
FDOT’s Target Zero initiative aims to reduce the number of transportation-related serious injuries and deaths across Florida to zero, according to the FDOT website. On average, eight people are killed and 49 are injured on Florida’s roads daily.
People’s mentality on driving matters just as much as safety projects, Partington said.
“You can design as much safety into things as possible, but if the mentality behind it is, ‘I’m going to to speed to get where I need to go as quickly as humanly possible,’ you’re still going to end up with crashes and deaths,” he said.
The reason for narrowing lanes and reducing speed limits is to create a safer environment for both drivers and pedestrians, Partington said.
“Both the driver and the pedestrian share a responsibility to make the entire transportation mobility system safer, and so each one has to do their part,” Partington said. “For the driver, they need to slow down and be more aware of their surroundings, and then for the pedestrian, they need to make sure they use marked crosswalks and they also need to raise their awareness so that they’re being as [safe] as possible, and that’s the only way we’re ever going to make progress and getting to zero, which is the goal.”
The Observer reached out to the Florida Department of Transportation for comment, but did not receive responses to our questions in time for publication.
