Updated 7/25: This petition at Change.org for Raquel Nelson has a lot of momentum. Sign it if you haven’t already. It will be delivered to the judge in the case before sentencing tomorrow. The response to our post on the Atlanta mother who was charged with vehicular homicide when her child was struck by a hit-and-run [...]

Updated 7/19: The charge has been corrected. Nelson was charged with vehicular homicide. Updated 7/21: More information added at bottom. This is an advocacy blog, but typically we’re rather measured in our tone. Sometimes, however, we see something so utterly outrageous, so emblematic of the failure of our current transportation system, that “measured” just won’t cut [...]

In last month’s Dangerous by Design 2011 report, we documented the 47,000 preventable pedestrian deaths between 2000 and 2009, along with the 688,000 injured. This is equivalent to one American being struck by a car or truck every 7 minutes for the past ten years. The majority of these deaths occur on roadways that are dangerous by design — engineered for speeding traffic with little to no consideration for people walking, biking or using public transit. None of us should have to deal with losing a child, friend or loved one simply because they were walking in the wrong place at the wrong time.

With the echo of the latest pedestrian fatality figures still ringing, a city in the deep South became the latest, albeit unlikely, place to adopt a Complete Streets policy. To paraphrase the song: if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. When people think of “infrastructure,” images of roadways and grids tend to come [...]

Jackson, Mississippi Credit: Dr. Scott Crawford. This week’s release of Dangerous by Design has prompted several newspapers to editorialize in favor of tough pedestrian safety measures that address the urgency of the 47,000 killed and 688,000 injured on unsafe streets between 2000 and 2009. The report generated ample coverage in Florida, home to the nation’s four [...]

Tuesday’s release of Dangerous by Design outlining the 47,700 deaths and 688,000 injuries to people while walking on unsafe streets has renewed Congress’ focus on pedestrian safety in the next transportation bill. But what substantial steps the House and Senate will take to promote safer streets and improve conditions for walking remains very much in [...]

From 2000-2009, 47,000 people were killed while walking our nation’s streets, according to the 2011 edition of our pedestrian safety report. These fatalities occurred largely on streets designed for speeding traffic at the expense of people on foot. Dangerous by Design 2011 adds a visual element: Data from 2001-2009 can be viewed on an interactive map, showing details about the victim, the street type and even what the street looks like via Google Street View.

More than 47,700 pedestrians were killed in the U.S. between 2000 and 2009, and the majority of those deaths were preventable, according to Dangerous by Design 2011. This new report shows how roadway designs promoted by federal investment endanger people on foot and ranks major metropolitan areas to assess how safe pedestrians are while walking. The top four – Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa – are all in Florida.