On Monday, a Reuters article declared Florida the most dangerous state for walkers. The four most hazardous communities for walkers, according to the Pedestrian Danger Index, all were in Florida — Orlando, Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville.
The article is based on a new report from the group Transportation for America (T4), which surveyed 360 metro areas from around the country to see how pedestrian fatalities can be prevented. The report is part of a program called “Dangerous By Design,” which looks at how our roadways are dangerous by design because they are engineered for speeding cars and trucks and they make little or no provision for people traveling by foot, in wheelchairs or on bicycles. The report also lists some solutions to make our streets safer. More information can be found on the T4 blog (scroll down for the “Dangerous By Design” entry).
Only two Alaska communities were rated — Anchorage and Fairbanks. Anchorage, with more people and traffic, had the highest Pedestrian Danger Index of the two. But out of the 20 communities from Florida rated, only one had a better rating than Anchorage and that was only by a small amount. Fairbanks had one of the better ratings of the 360 communities listed, but still Fairbanks had a worse rating than all of Minnesota’s eight listed communities (including Minneapolis-St. Paul). A fact sheet for Alaska can be downloaded from the link earlier in this paragraph.
Alaska Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance 
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