Why Pedestrian Safety is a Social Justice Issue

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control analyzing America's last decade of traffic-related pedestrian deaths reveals the inequitable impacts of the country's "public health epidemic."

1 minute read

May 12, 2013, 7:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Running shoes

Timothy Takemoto / Flickr

In addition to the sobering finding that 47,392 pedestrians were killed on American roadways between 2000-2010, the CDC found that in 2010, "the per capita pedestrian fatality rate in America was more than double the rate in the UK and Germany."

Perhaps the most interesting insight from the report, however, is on "the social dimensions of this public health epidemic." 

"Not everyone is affected equally by dangerous walking conditions in America," says Angie Schmitt, in summarizing the report's findings. "Elderly and minority populations are at the greatest risk, researchers found, while men of all demographics were two-and-a-half times more likely than women to be killed by a car while walking."

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