Careful before stepping out! Photo: StockXchng.
As if you didn’t have reason enough, now there’s even more cause to fear the mean streets of Los Angeles.
The Transportation for America (TFA) advocacy group has released a report ranking Los Angeles as 27th in the nation for pedestrian accidents, but third in pedestrian fatalities.
In other words, your stroll along Main Street carries less peril overall than in other American cities, but is more likely to end in tragedy if you do bump into an Angeleno motorist (or vice versa).
Entitled Dangerous by Design, the TFA report is part of a campaign to push pro-pedestrian legislation through Congress. Not surprisingly, it finds the elderly (especially those living in Florida), women and minorities the hardest hit (perhaps that’s a poor choice of words) amid a growing “epidemic” of unsafe urban infrastructure:
“[B]ut people of all ages and all walks of life have been struck down in the simple act of walking. These deaths typically are labeled ‘accidents,’ and attributed to error on the part of motorist or pedestrian. In fact, however, an overwhelming proportion share a similar factor: They occurred along roadways that were dangerous by design…”
How “Unwalkable” Are We?
While even the casual observer would agree that L.A. has become increasingly hostile for pedestrians — a trend we need to reverse — TFA’s analysis should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
To attain its deathly statistics, the group lumped Los Angeles, Santa Ana and Long Beach into the same “metro area.” Not only is Santa Ana the seat of a whole other county, but these three cities are linked by some of our state’s busiest commercial trucking routes. We have no way of knowing from the analysis whether accidents occurred primarily in civic and shopping centers, along “city walks,” or in port, industrial and warehouse districts.
It’s an important distinction, since the problems — and their solutions — are entirely different.
Bottom line: While everyone wants a more walkable L.A., taking that stroll down Main Street may not actually be as dangerous as reported.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
As a daily dog walker, doesn’t this make you teensiest bit nervous?
Rebecca, I usually confine my dog romping to the yard, the dog park, or nature trails in the great outdoors. (Yes, I’m a frequent violator of local off-leash ordinances…) Still, I am concerned about an increased lack of regard for pedestrians I see around town. Even so, something — don’t know what — makes me suspicious of this report’s methodology.