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Analysis Identifies the Region’s Most Dangerous Roads for Walking

MDR-web-headerA new Tri-State analysis finds that more than 1,200 pedestrians were killed on roads in Connecticut, New Jersey and downstate New York in the three years from 2010 through 2012.

Tri-State’s annual Most Dangerous Roads for Walking report finds that Route 25 (Middle Country Road, Jericho Turnpike) in Suffolk County is the region’s most dangerous road for pedestrians, displacing Hempstead Turnpike as the most deadly road for walking for the first time since the Most Dangerous Roads analysis was launched in 2008. Sixteen pedestrians were killed along this stretch of roadway, with half of the fatalities on an 11.5 mile stretch from Centereach to Ridge.

Over the years, Suffolk County’s Route 25 (Jericho Turnpike) has consistently been among the region’s most dangerous for pedestrians, but this is the first year it has topped the list. Following close behind Route 25, is Burlington County, New Jersey’s US-130 (Burlington Pike) and Nassau County’s Route 24 (Hempstead Turnpike) each of which were the site of 12 pedestrian fatalities.

The Campaign found that arterial roadways — multi-lane roads that often have speed limits of 40 mph or more with little pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure — are the region’s most deadly for pedestrians. About 15 percent of the total lane miles in the three states are classified as arterials, but nearly 60 percent of pedestrian fatalities occurred on this type of road.

The region’s most dangerous roads for walking during the study period were:

Rank Change in Ranking (Prior Year’s Rank) Road County

2010

2011

2012

Total

1

↑ (2) ROUTE 25 (MIDDLE COUNTRY RD, JERICHO TPKE, E MAIN ST, MAIN RD) Suffolk, NY

1

9

6

16

2

↑ (4) US-130 (BURLINGTON PIKE) Burlington, NJ

4

2

6

12

2

↓ (1) ROUTE 24 (HEMPSTEAD TPKE, FULTON AVE, CONKLIN ST) Nassau, NY

5

3

4

12

4

↑ (9) US-30 (WHITE HORSE PIKE, ADMIRAL WILSON BLVD) Camden, NJ

2

5

2

9

4

↓ (2) BROADWAY Manhattan, NY

4

2

3

9

4

ROUTE 110 (NEW YORK AVE, BROADHOLLOW RD, BROADWAY) Suffolk, NY

3

5

1

9

4

↑ (9) ROUTE 27 (SUNRISE HWY, MONTAUK POINT STATE HWY, CR 39) Suffolk, NY

4

2

3

9

8

↓ (4) ROUTE 27 (SUNRISE HWY) Nassau, NY

3

2

3

8

8

 ↑ (12) WOODHAVEN BLVD Queens, NY

2

4

2

8

A new analysis, the Campaign’s Cluster Analysis Factsheet calls attention to areas on certain roadways that had particularly high concentration of pedestrian deaths, and the Campaign’s Redesigning Roads Factsheet highlights roads that have been recently or soon will be redesigned to be made safer for pedestrians.

However, with 1,236 pedestrian deaths from 2010 through 2012, more must be done to protect pedestrians in Connecticut, New Jersey and downstate New York. The analysis offers region-wide recommendations for legislators at the local, state and national levels:

  • Make pedestrian safety a policy and investment priority in transportation budgets and capital plans.
  • Protect vulnerable pedestrians through increased spending on Safe Routes to School, Safe Routes to Transit and Safe Routes for Seniors program.
  • Use the flexibility of federal transportation programs to prioritize walking and biking improvements.
  • Track and monitor the implementation of complete streets laws and policies to ensure that new or retrofitted roads safely accommodate bicyclists, pedestrians, transit riders and motorists of all ages and abilities.
  • Expand federal programs such as TIGER and Transportation Alternatives that provide significant funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

The Campaign’s Tri-State Region Factsheet also offers specific recommendations for Connecticut, New Jersey and downstate New York.

The analysis relies upon the most recent data available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) to determine which routes within each county had the highest number of pedestrian fatalities from 2010 to 2012. The analysis excludes interstates and other roads where pedestrians are prohibited and omits those fatalities that occurred on portions of roads where pedestrians are not allowed.

County fact sheets showing the most dangerous routes for walking are available here. Links to county interactive maps showing the locations of each fatality, along with descriptive details for each victim, are also available.

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Joseph Alacchi
Joseph Alacchi
10 years ago

In order to provide an unbiased analysis, you need to estimate fatalites per pedestrian mile. Google Street View can help with estimating this. Though Broadway has as many deaths as Rte 110 in Suffolk, there are likely 10000 times more pedestrian miles done on Broadway.

To differentiate the mass of roads with 0-1 deaths, it would be helpful to use injuries as a substitute, maybe counting as 0.05 deaths. This would provide an even fairer ranking of the risk of walking along each road.

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[…] state departments of transportation try to reduce the stubborn problem of pedestrian and cyclist deaths, one tactic they can use is to help local communities adopt […]

Renata Silberblatt
Renata Silberblatt
10 years ago

It would indeed be beneficial to normalize the number of fatalities by pedestrian counts, but such analysis is impossible because pedestrian counts do not exist for every road in our region (all of New Jersey and Connecticut and the twelve counties that comprise downstate New York).

Google Street View cannot assist with pedestrian counts because it is a snapshot of a particular place and does not provide an accurate estimate of pedestrian activity. Moreover, Google Street View images are often years old, thus further making it an unreliable source for estimating pedestrian counts.

There is no national database that records motor vehicle crash injuries or other injury data. Because we are looking at three states, it is important for us to use one data source for all our data.

R Troy
R Troy
10 years ago

In the East Northport area, RT 25 accounts for 2 of the most dangerous intersections – at Larkfield Road, plus at Town Line / Commack Roads. Of course, we have a few spots on Commack Road, and a real good one on Vanderbilt Motor Parkway just East of Commack Road.

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[…] this week, Tri-State released an analysis on the region’s Most Dangerous Roads for Walking. This year, however, in addition to looking at total fatalities, we took a closer look at a […]

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[…] that put pedestrians’ lives at risk traverse the tri-state region, and although no two dangerous roads are exactly alike, they tend to share a design that expedites […]

Brandon
Brandon
10 years ago

Pedestrian counts may be a thing of the future, but not normalizing by length to get a per-mile rate?

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[…] to solicit TAP grant applications, New Jersey will have some real opportunities to improve its most dangerous roads and expand Circuit trails once this funding is made available. Counties and municipalities need […]

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[…] Road) in Suffolk County, Long Island, is the region’s most dangerous road for pedestrians for the second year in a row. Twenty pedestrians were killed along this road during the three-year […]

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