Perils for Pedestrians

What is a peril?
Perils for Pedestrians is interested in both problems and solutions

Where can I watch the show? There are now 4 ways to see Perils For Pedestrians:

• DISH Network - Universityhouse Channel 9411
  Tuesdays
  9:30 pm Eastern / 8:30 Central / 7:30 Mountain / 6:30 Pacific
• Public Access Cable TV: Perils for Pedestrians currently airs in 27 states plus the District of Columbia.
• On the Internet: Perils for Pedestrians is webcast by some stations and most episodes are now available on Google Video .
• DVDs

Perils for Pedestrians in print!

• Newspaper Articles

• Publications
  Reducing Student Pedestrian Perils
  by John Z Wetmore
  The number of students walking to school in the United States has fallen from 70 percent a generation ago to barely 10 percent today. What are the implications of this enormous change? What caused it? What can be done to reverse it?

Past episodes of Perils For Pedestrians are now available on a set of DVDs. Ask how to order a set. John@Pedestrians.org

If Pedestrians had clout
A great cartoon about snow and sidewalks! By Dan Wasserman of the Boston Globe.

Statistics about pedestrian safety

Pedestrian Bridges
What works; what doesn't.

Sidewalks Placement
The advantages of setting back the sidewalk with a planting strip.

Links
We are proud to have the largest known set of links to pedestrian sites on the internet!

What I Can Do?
Self help tips for folks who care about pedestrians.

How do I report a peril?

Who is John Z Wetmore?

What is new?

Send us your comments.

Table of Contents

Mean Streets 1998 Children at Risk
an annual report released by the Surface Transportation Policy Project.

"In fact, on a per-mile basis, walking is more dangerous than driving, flying, or riding a bus or train .... We found that most fatalities — 69 percent — occur on neighborhood streets.

Mean Streets 2000 Report

Many communities have no sidewalks, and nowhere to walk to, which is bad for public safety as well as for our nation's physical health. It has become impossible in such settings for neighbors to greet one another on the street, or for kids to walk to their own nearby schools. A gallon of gas can be used up just driving to get a gallon of milk. All of these add up to more stress for already overstressed family lives.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Types of the Early 1990's
Federal Highway Administration Publication No. FHWA-RD-95-163

Approximately 6,500 pedestrians and 900 bicyclists are killed each year as a result of collisions with motor vehicles. As a group, pedestrians and bicyclists comprise more than 14 percent of all highway fatalities each year.

Synthesis of Safety Research - Pedestrians
August 1991 Pub. no. FHWA-SA-91-034 page 83

A 1983 study by Tobey et. al. [1] investigated the safety effects of sidewalks. Sites with no sidewalks or pathways were the most hazardous for pedestrians, with pedestrian hazard scores of +2.6 and a PxV exposure score (i.e. exposure measure includes pedestrian volumes times traffic volume) of +2.2. This indicates that accidents at sites without sidewalks are more than twice as likely to occur than expected. Sites with sidewalks on one side of the road had a pedestrian volume and PxV hazard scores of +1.2 and +1.1, compared to scores of -1.2 and -1.2 for sites with sidewalks on bothsides of the road. Thus, sites with no sidewalks were the most hazardous to pedestrians, and least hazardous where sidewalks are present on both sides of the road.

1) H.N. Tobey, E.M. Shunamen, and R. L. Knoblauch, Pedestrian Trip Making Characteristics and Exposure Measures, DTFH61-81-C-00020, Federal Highway Administration, 1983.