Pedestrian Deaths Are Rising—And Moving to the Suburbs
Over the past decade, the U.S. has seen a sharp rise in pedestrian deaths while walking. Researchers have found a 59% increase in pedestrian deaths since 2009, reaching 6,516 in 2020, the highest in more than 30 years.
What’s changed isn’t just how many lives are being lost, it’s where. Fatal crashes have shifted away from downtown areas and are centering around suburban corridors, particularly areas with wide, multi-lane roads that have posted speed limits of 40–45 mph. In these areas, walking often means navigating long crossings and higher impact speeds. In nine large U.S. cities, pedestrian deaths decreased by 63% in downtown areas, but rose by 32% outside these areas between the early 2000s and the late 2010s.
These deaths are also disproportionately concentrated in communities with higher poverty, lower educational attainment, and larger shares of minority residents, underscoring an unequal safety burden.
Key Findings
- Deaths have suburbanized. In a multi-city analysis, downtown pedestrian fatalities dropped 63%, while areas outside downtowns saw a 32% increase over the same period.
- Street design is destiny. The rise in fatalities aligns with arterials, 40–45 mph speed limits, and roads with more than four lanes—the places where small speed differences have outsized consequences.
- Lower-density networks are riskier. Locations where pedestrians are killed show declining intersection and road-network density and less transit access, consistent with the move toward suburban settings.
- Inequities persist. Fatalities cluster in tracts with higher poverty and lower educational attainment and in areas with fewer White non-Hispanic residents; these disparities have intensified in the “after-2009” period.
- Overall, there has been a 59% increase in pedestrian deaths since 2009 with a 63% decrease in downtown areas versus a 32% increase in areas outside of downtowns. These findings show greater risks on suburban, lower-density networks with less transit access; overrepresentation in tracts with higher poverty/lower education.
What a Dangerous Road Looks Like
- Multi-lane (often 5+ lanes) with 30–45 mph limits
- High traffic (often 25k+ vehicles/day)
- Long blocks and few crosswalks
- Strip retail + big parking lots, billboards
- Often borders lower-income neighborhoods
Top 10 Most Dangerous States for Pedestrians (2023)
- New Mexico — 4.68
- Florida — 3.54
- Nevada — 3.41
- South Carolina — 3.39
- Louisiana — 3.17
- Arizona — 2.96
- Mississippi — 2.96 (tie)
- District of Columbia — 2.95
- Georgia — 2.91
- California — 2.71 (tie) / Delaware — 2.71 (tie). Governors Highway Safety Association
What these places have in common: lots of walking on fast suburban arterials with multiple lanes and long crossings—exactly where small speed reductions save lives.
What Makes a State Dangerous for Pedestrians?
When we talk about the “safest” or “most dangerous” places to walk, three aspects dominate:
- Speed and Road Type: Severe pedestrian crashes concentrate on arterials, especially 40–45 mph facilities and multi-lane roads that lengthen crossing distance and raise impact forces.
- Network and Design: Lower intersection and street-network density tends to mean longer blocks and fewer safe places to cross—conditions linked to worse safety outcomes.
- Access and Equity: Areas with less access to transit and higher poverty see more fatal pedestrian crashes, even as many downtowns have improved.
States with more of these suburban, high-speed corridors and fewer built-in protections will generally be more dangerous for people walking.
Top 10 Safest States for Pedestrians (2023)
- Nebraska — 0.71
- Minnesota — 0.77 (tie)
- Vermont — 0.77 (tie)
- Wisconsin — 0.93
- Iowa — 0.94
- Massachusetts — 0.99
- Rhode Island — 1.00
- New Hampshire — 1.07
- West Virginia — 1.13
- Utah — 1.17. Governors Highway Safety Association
Why they do well: more compact networks and fewer high-speed, multi-lane crossings where people walk. (Higher intersection/road-network density and better transit access are consistently linked with safer outcomes.)
Case study: US-19 (FL)
A 20-mile stretch of US-19 in Pasco County saw 137 pedestrian deaths from 2001–2016—illustrating how a single, fast multi-lane corridor can account for an outsized share of fatalities.
“High-risk corridors, like US-19, disproportionately cut through lower-income and majority-Black or Hispanic neighborhoods, places where many people must walk or take transit, so safety fixes here have the biggest impact.”
6 Tips for Safer Walking (and Driving Around People Walking)
- Manage speed. If you drive, treat 35–45 mph corridors like school zones for your attention—small speed reductions dramatically cut fatality risk.
- Be visible at night. Walkers: lights or reflectivity help. Drivers: use high-beams responsibly and scan for unlit crossings.
- Cross smart. Choose signals, beacons, or medians when available; drivers, yield early at unsignalized crossings.
- Right-turn discipline. Fully stop on red; check crosswalks twice before committing to a turn.
- Cut the distractions & impairment. Alcohol and inattention raise risk for everyone—plan a ride, put the phone down.
- Advocate for fixes. Ask local leaders for median refuges, lighting, LPIs, and lower speeds where people actually walk.
Methodology and Data Sources
This post synthesizes national research on where and why fatal pedestrian crashes occur. Core sources include the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and linked neighborhood data (Census + EPA Smart Location Database) used to trace 1999–2020 spatial trends. Analyses show a shift from downtown areas to suburban areas, with declining intersection/road-network density, reduced transit access, and persistent equity disparities in the locations where pedestrians are killed.
Source: Sanchez Rodriguez & Ferenchak (2023). Longitudinal Spatial Trends in U.S. Pedestrian Fatalities, 1999–2020.Transportation Research Record.
