Life in the streets. Documenting the culture of intersections.
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Pedestrian Safety
Unfortunately, people can be killed as pedestrians. Here are some statistics to illustrate what is really happening. According to Fatality Facts, 2004, from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:
- The number of pedestrian deaths has steadily decreased each year, but they still make up 11% of all deaths involving motor vehicles.
- Of these, 18% involve hit-and-run motorists.
- The risk of death actually increases steadily with age - those over age 70 are at greatest risk while those under age 13 are at the least risk.
- Over 70% of the fatalities were in urban environments.
Link to the report here.
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via Streets Blog
Visibility and eye contact are essential to avoiding conflict at a crossing, but visual communication between different street users is greatly impaired when parked cars crowd an intersection (see diagrams above).
Daylighting clears away this visual obstacle and improves safety, especially for children, who have difficulty seeing and being seen at intersections. Daylighting also shortens the crossing distance at intersections, which reduces pedestrians’ exposure to traffic. For seniors and other street users with longer crossing times, this is particularly important.
Intersection 911 is a project of BOZZmedia
