Notable Findings

New Mexico reaches top spot and historic levels. The rate of death (per 100,000 people) increased 65 percent over the decade from 2013 to 2022, from 2.53 up to 4.19. In absolute terms, these deaths have nearly doubled over that period, increasing by 90 percent. New Mexico is also getting worse faster than other states—New Mexico had the second largest increase in the rate of death (+1.03) when comparing average rates for consecutive five-year periods. To put that long-term increase in perspective, the total pedestrian fatality rate in the United Kingdom in 2022 (0.57 deaths per 100k people) was approximately half of New Mexico’s long-term increase.

All but two of the 20 most deadly states are getting worse. Only Delaware (-0.30) and Nevada (-0.09) in the top 20 saw improvements in their long-term fatality rate (comparing average rates for 2013-2017 to 2018-2022). The rest of the 18 most deadly states are growing more deadly.

Six other states are trending less deadly, though most with only modest gains. Rhode Island saw the biggest improvement of any state at -0.50. The other five states trending less deadly only saw modest improvements, with a -0.31 total cumulative decrease in MA, ME, NH, NY, and UT added together. While these decreases are relatively small, it’s worth noting that eight total states improved in this report, compared to just four in our 2022 report.

The top 20 shifts, but the song remains the same. While rankings have shifted around compared to our last edition of this report in 2022, the list of states included in the top 20 are the same.

State transportation agencies own and control the most dangerous roadways. Nationally, from 2018-2022, 54 percent of the deaths of people struck and killed while walking occurred on streets and roads owned by states.

Black people were killed while walking at rates higher than the national rate for all persons (with a minimum of 30 deaths from 2018-2022). Within those 27, 13 states have a rate that is almost twice as high as that national rate, or higher. (4.00 per 100k or above).

Ranking the most deadly states

This report includes pedestrian fatality statistics and ranks the most deadly states. All states are too dangerous. As with the 2022 edition of this report, we examine a five-year period (2018-2022) to get a broader sample size for each state. Long-term fatality rates are calculated by comparing the average rate for 2013-17 to the average for 2018-22.

Who faces more danger in each state

As noted in the metro/national release, people of color, particularly Black and American Indian/Alaska Native populations, are disproportionately killed while walking compared to the rate of death for all Americans. But this burden is even more disproportionate in some states.

Methodology: We report rates as the annual average deaths per 100,000 population for each group over the 5-year period (2018-2022). Some states had zero reported pedestrian fatalities for specific racial groups. Other states had very high rates primarily due to having a low population (eg. Wyoming has a Black pedestrian fatality rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people despite only having 3 black deaths, or 0.6 deaths per year, against a Black population of only 4,500). Average deaths by race and ethnicity that are higher than the overall average death rate for each state are marked in red.

States are setting targets for pedestrian safety

The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provided states and metro areas with historic levels of federal transportation funding. The IIJA was paired with promises of improved safety, lower emissions, improved condition of roads and bridges, and better access to jobs and opportunity, just to name a few. How will taxpayers assess progress on these indicators? One answer is found in something that happened nearly a decade before the IIJA passed. The 2012 federal transportation law (MAP-21) created a modest new system of performance measures for assessing progress. One of the required measures was for safety overall, which included a separate measure specifically for the safety of people walking and biking.

While there are no significant penalties for states that miss the safety performance targets they set, the process created by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) allows people to see their state’s goals, which states are setting ambitious targets, and which states have met those targets.

13 total states set targets for more people to be killed or seriously injured while walking (and biking) in 2024 than were killed or injured in 2022. That list includes seven of the top 20 most deadly states in this report—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. 36 other states set targets in 2024 to reduce the number of roadway deaths and injuries from their 2022 numbers. 35 states in total are setting targets that are higher than their roadway fatalities and injury totals for 2010. (Note: Florida has set a target of zero deaths every year, while the number of non-motorized deaths and injuries have dipped below 3,200 just once since this performance tracking program began in 2020. They are the only state to do so.)

Improving coordination with state DOTs

This year’s release of Dangerous by Design found that, once again, the majority of pedestrian fatalities occur on state-owned roads. This isn’t surprising. These roads can be some of the hardest to make safer for people outside of vehicles because they were built or designed to move high-speed traffic through the area, even if they also need to provide access to local jobs, stores, schools, and other local destinations people access daily. It is impossible for a road to serve both as a main street and a state highway. What’s more, local Complete Streets policies or other efforts to address community concerns only have jurisdiction over local roads and may have little to no effect on roads owned by the state.

Smart Growth America has worked in a variety of programs, including our recent Complete Streets Leadership Academy, to improve collaboration between state DOTs and local decision-makers in the hopes of finally being able to move the needs on these deadly roads. Our experience has demonstrated that without action around the items below, we will never see the coordination required to significantly move the needle on pedestrian safety.

• Recognize the scope and severity of the crisis and the need for new approaches: If state leaders are not willing to agree that there is a massive safety crisis on these state-owned roads and a need to challenge the (currently failing) approaches to addressing traffic safety, it is hard to see how we will have real progress in reducing fatalities. This may include re-thinking metrics of success and better-incorporating factors like the lived experience of community members.
• Create new processes and policies to enable quick implementation and long-term systems change: Steps can be taken by both state DOTs and local jurisdictions to improve collaboration and the chances of successful project implementation. Joint efforts, such as those around a quick-build demonstration, can be used to identify priorities for change and demonstrate a commitment by the state to improve community safety.
• Foster creativity and innovation at every opportunity: It is important to note that in many of the states SGA has worked with over the years, the willingness and resourcefulness of state-level staff varied greatly with those representing state DOTs at the district or regional level. A commitment to safety must be institutionalized so that every single staff member not only shares it but promotes it and feels comfortable finding innovative ways to improve the status quo.
• Look for common ground: Interactions and relationships between city and state staff have a history of challenges—a lack of trust, all virtual exchanges, no clear person to contact, and counterparts are often viewed as an obstacle to tackle rather than a person to collaborate with. This is in and of itself is a barrier to change. Opportunities should be provided for state staff to engage in person in the spaces they are designing for and the people they are designing with. A shared vision for projects should be based on the intent and goals and not individual design elements that might be outside of existing guidance.

Case studies

For more examples of how states and local jurisdictions are working together to address the devastating trend of pedestrian fatalities, read our case studies on Kalamazoo, MI, and Seattle, WA. (Click on the images below to access the case studies.)