“Stroads,” street-road hybrids that channel high-speed traffic through residential areas, are increasingly common and often deadly for pedestrians.
The death of a 16-year-old who was struck by a car on Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee highlights “the fatal flaw in America’s road design system,” write Rebecca Cadenhead and Andrew Mollica for the Wall Street Journal. Union Avenue is a “stroad,” a street-road combination that channels high-speed traffic through residential areas. This popular type of road design is often deadly for pedestrians.
Because stroads are wide and straight with multiple lanes, they facilitate speeding and inattentiveness while driving. Their width also usually guarantees they are poorly lit at night, making them dangerous for pedestrians trying to cross. The Sunbelt is now the most dangerous place in the country for pedestrians, where stroads are becoming increasingly common.
Urban sprawl is at least partially to blame for the United States’ stroads: “When you plop 200 houses down 15 miles from the place where people have to work, you have to build big roads where they can drive fast,” Nicholas Ferenchak, an associate professor at the University of New Mexico and the director of the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety told the Wall Street Journal.
Read the full story: The Deadly 1.5-Mile Corridor That Shows the Fatal Flaw in America’s Road Design
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