Florida is the most dangerous place for a pedestrian to walk, with two cities in the top five of places with the most people struck and killed by cars, a report has revealed.
A total of 7,265 people died while walking in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, even though there were fewer drivers on the road. This is a 4.7% increase from the year before, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. It is the highest number in 40 years.
Older adults and people walking in low-income neighborhoods had the highest fatality rate, at 3.3 people per 1,000. This is three times the rate of someone making more than $93,000 per year, according to a report compiled by Smart Growth America.
“This epidemic continues growing worse because our nation’s streets are dangerous by design, designed primarily to move cars quickly at the expense of keeping everyone safe,” the report read. “The result in 2020 was a significant increase in all traffic fatalities, even with less driving overall due to the pandemic.”
For the second year in a row, the Daytona Beach area in Florida topped the list of fatalities. This was followed by Albuquerque, New Mexico; Memphis, Tennessee; the greater Tampa Bay area in Florida; and Charleston, South Carolina. The information was compiled between 2016 and 2016.
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None of the cities in the top 20 improved their numbers from the last report, which spanned from 2011 to 2015.
The deadliest states as a whole, in chronological order, are New Mexico, Florida, South Carolina, Arizona, and Delaware.
Although car culture-obsessed California was not at the top of the list, it does have one distinction: It’s the only state with three cities in the top 10. Those are Bakersfield, Stockton, and Fresno — all large cities in Central California’s farming belt.
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The study also found that people of color, particularly Native Americans and black Americans, died at higher rates than any other group at 4.8 times per 100,000. The safest group was Asian/Pacific Islanders at 1.2 times per 100,000.
