A Quiet Crisis on America’s Streets
In 2023, 7,314 pedestrians were killed on U.S. roads, a 70% increase from 4,302 deaths in 2010, according to a Washington Post investigation of federal data and public records. The figure is startling and presents statistics that show the significant danger to pedestrians in America.
While pedestrian fatality rates declined nearly 30% in other developed countries over the past decade, America’s roads have grown deadlier.
Data shows that the pedestrian deaths happen along multilane arterial roads, near strip malls, bus stops, and fast-food drive-throughs, often slicing through low-income neighborhoods. City by city across the United States, the surge in pedestrian deaths largely occurred on roads with a few things in common. The deaths were concentrated on multilane roads, with the largest clusters occurring on thoroughfares that cut through economically distressed neighborhoods and had fading commercial strips, according to the Post investigation.
The Hot Spots: Mapping America’s Deadliest Corridors
The Post investigation documents a sharp increase in places with clusters of pedestrian deaths. The number of locations with at least three recent pedestrian deaths clustered within a mile of one another tripled from roughly 275 in 2010 to more than 825 in 2023. These hot spots increased most in southern states such as Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arizona.
Earlier research by Robert Schneider and colleagues analyzed every pedestrian death in the U.S. between 2001 and 2016. Out of 75,000 fatal crashes, they identified 60 “hot spot” corridors, which they describe as short, one-kilometer stretches where six or more people died (Schneider et al., 2021). Their findings align with the Post’s more recent data:
“Nearly all fatal corridors were multilane, high-speed, and lined with retail, often bordered by low-income neighborhoods” (Schneider et al., 2021).
The Post’s investigation reveals just how concentrated the carnage is:
- In Albuquerque, 34 pedestrians were killed along a three-mile stretch of Central Avenue between 2010 and 2023.
- In Los Angeles, 33 people died on Western Avenue just south of downtown.
- In Houston, 36 people were killed on a 3½-mile section of Westheimer Road.
- In Tampa, Hillsborough Avenue’s 12½-mile stretch saw 67 fatalities with victims ranging from 11 to 94 years old.
Speed Kills: The Physics of Pedestrian Death
The connection between road design and fatality rates is stark. Roads with three lanes or more are by far the most dangerous because they enable higher speeds. The Post notes that fatality risk rises sharply above 30 mph. At 50 mph, a pedestrian’s chance of survival when struck is less than 1 in 5.
More than 3,800 people were killed almost immediately upon being struck in 2023, an indication that high speeds and larger vehicles are making impacts more violent. Additionally, the rate at which pedestrians are declared dead at the scene has more than doubled, according to the Post’s analysis.
In Bakersfield, California, this pattern is especially visible. More than a quarter of victims died at the scene in 2010. By 2023, that figure had jumped to more than 70 percent.
The Great Migration: Deaths Move to the Suburbs
Ossiris Sánchez-Rodríguez and Nicholas Ferenchak at the University of New Mexico mapped two decades of fatal pedestrian crashes and revealed a geographic shift (Sánchez-Rodríguez & Ferenchak, 2023).
Between 1999 and 2020, findings show deaths fell 63% in downtowns, but rose 32% in suburbs, especially in postwar neighborhoods built for cars, not walkers. The Post confirms this pattern, showing the most dangerous areas are no longer in congested downtowns, but in less dense neighborhoods toward the edges of cities. These roads on urban outskirts were constructed decades ago to connect towns before the era of interstate highways. As businesses and residences have sprawled around them, these arteries now have people walking to fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, liquor stores, and supermarkets.
“What we’re asking those roads to do for our society is changing as the land use is changing,” said Brian Tefft of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Traffic signals with crosswalks are often up to a mile apart, leaving pedestrians to face the choice between walking far out of their way or attempting to dash through traffic.
A Matter of Equity
The geography of pedestrian deaths mirrors America’s racial and economic divides. The Post found that pedestrian fatalities are more common in Black and Latino neighborhoods and those with higher poverty rates:
- Black pedestrians died at a rate double that of Whites
- Native Americans faced a fatality rate more than five times as high
In the death hot spots identified by the Post, nearly one in five households don’t have access to a car, which is more than double the rate in other communities. Walking isn’t a choice for these residents; it’s a necessity.
Schneider’s earlier research found that 53% of the 60 deadliest corridors were in majority Black or Hispanic neighborhoods (Schneider et al., 2021). Many residents rely on walking and transit, yet live amid fast, unforgiving roads.
“Wherever we have these hot spots, these communities are not getting what they need. Yes, it’s the design, but it’s more than that. There’s bigger socioeconomic problems, lack of political power, recognition” (Schneider et al., 2021).
Memphis: A Case Study in Deadly Design
Among large metro areas, Memphis’s streets are the most deadly for people on foot. The city’s pedestrian fatality rate more than quadrupled between 2010 and 2023. Deaths peaked at 82 in 2022 before declining to 57 in 2023 and 47 last year.
Jackson Avenue, seven miles from the city’s heart, exemplifies the problem. The seven-lane road has been documented by the city and state as disproportionately lethal but remains mostly unimproved. Cars and trucks roar past apartments, restaurants, corner stores, and gas stations, which are often well above the 40 mph speed limit.
Eleven pedestrians have been killed on a 1½-mile stretch of Jackson Avenue in the past decade. Within two years of one victim’s death, two more people were killed at the same intersection.
A century ago, Jackson Avenue extended outside the city limits, later forming part of Tennessee’s early highway network. Images from the 1960s show trees and a grassy median. Today, that median is gone, replaced by a center turn lane. The nearest traffic light can be a 10-minute walk away.
Despite clear evidence of danger, including a 2022 state-sponsored study that concluded road designs were driving the increase in crash severity, Tennessee officials have not conducted an analysis of the Jackson Avenue danger zone and have no plans to invest in safety projects in the area.
The Cost of Convenience: Ridehailing’s Deadly Side Effect
When Uber and Lyft promised to make streets safer by reducing drunk driving, few questioned the logic. But a 2022 study by Barrios, Hochberg, and Yi uncovered the opposite trend. After ridehailing services launched, cities saw a 2–4% increase in fatal accidents, including pedestrians. The culprits: more “deadheading” (drivers roaming between fares), higher vehicle miles traveled overall, and no consistent drop in drunk-driving crashes. “Ridehailing has introduced more cars, more congestion, and more distracted driving. The annual cost in human lives may exceed $9 billion” (Barrios et al., 2022).
A Failure of Political Will
Despite abundant evidence of dangers, state and city agencies have been slow to invest in improvements or curb vehicle speeds. A priority among local transportation agencies remains avoiding traffic jams rather than responding to concerns of pedestrians, who are more likely to live in poor neighborhoods and wield less political influence.
The federal government has urged communities to enhance pedestrian safety but has not tied the bulk of funding to better safety outcomes. The Trump administration’s Transportation Department has moved to claw back some pedestrian safety funding, pulling grants from projects it deemed “hostile to motor vehicles.”
Designing for Life, Not Throughput
The solutions are well-established:
- Lower urban speed limits to 25 mph (as New York did in 2014)
- Add median refuges and pedestrian beacons on wide arterials
- Enforce speed limits automatically
- Build sidewalks and crosswalks wherever transit exists
- Reduce lanes on dangerous arterials
- Replace “Level of Service” metrics (which favor fast cars) with Vision Zero metrics that prioritize human safety
Officials in Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and the Bakersfield area have invested millions in such measures. Memphis officials say recent declines indicate their street redesign efforts are paying off, though much remains to be done.
Conclusion: The Road Ahead
Pedestrian deaths are not random. They are predictable, patterned, and preventable. They occur where design, policy, and inequality intersect, where speed is valued over safety, and where those who must walk have the least political power to demand change.
As one victim’s son told the Post: “Every statistic has a name behind it, a family member behind it, a loved one behind it.”
Sources
- Schneider, R. J., Proulx, F. R., Sanders, R. L., & Moayyed, H. (2021). United States Fatal Pedestrian Crash Hot Spot Locations and Characteristics. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 14(1).
- Sánchez-Rodríguez, O., & Ferenchak, N. N. (2023). Longitudinal Spatial Trends in U.S. Pedestrian Fatalities, 1999–2020. Transportation Research Record.
- Barrios, J. M., Hochberg, Y. V., & Yi, H. (2022). The Cost of Convenience: Ridehailing and Traffic Fatalities. Journal of Operations Management.
- The Washington Post (2025). “The deadliest roads in America” (interactive investigation).
