Las Vegas Sun

February 12, 2012

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SUN EDITORIAL:

Pedestrians face daily risks

National coalition rightly calls for retrofitting city streets to make them safer

Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Six years after this newspaper wrote a series of stories documenting that Nevada was one of the most dangerous states for pedestrians, a national coalition is reporting that pedestrians are at risk on streets across the country.

The Sun’s reporting found that a culture of reckless driving, combined with weak penalties for drivers who strike pedestrians, contributed to the problem in Nevada. State traffic laws were strengthened in response to the Sun’s series.

Now the national coalition has found another reason why pedestrian deaths — more than 43,000 nationally this decade — are so high. “An overwhelming proportion of the deaths share a similar reason,” the coalition said in a lengthy report. “They occurred along roadways that were dangerous by design, streets that were engineered for speeding cars. Little or no provision was made for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on a bicycle.”

The coalition, formed last year, is called Transportation for America and its members include local, state and national governmental officials, as well as more than 300 groups across the country that support safer roadways. The coalition is supported by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who responded favorably to the report.

LaHood met with coalition members last week and pledged the cooperation of his department’s safety council. “The right of way doesn’t just belong to cars — it belongs to pedestrians and bicyclists as well,” LaHood said.

In its report, the coalition compiled a list of 52 metropolitan areas, each with at least a million residents. The four worst areas for pedestrian deaths were in Florida. But Nevada has work to do as well. Las Vegas was ranked 11th-worst.

The coalition wants the next federal transportation bill to include plans for “retrofitting poorly designed roads (by) adding sidewalks and bicycle lanes, reducing crossing distances, planting trees and installing more crosswalks.”

It would make sense for the Transportation Department to write long-range plans for achieving these and other safety goals. Walking and bicycling, which are encouraged for health reasons, should not be dangerous activities in our nation’s cities.

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