Tampa area on bad path for walkers

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area ranks second to Orlando as the most dangerous U.S. metropolitan area for pedestrians, according to a report released Monday by two nonprofit coalitions that advocate for transportation issues.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach ranked third and Jacksonville fourth nationwide in a pedestrian danger index devised by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership. The Transportation for America group collaborated on the report.

Punta Gorda, Sebastian-Vero Beach, Ocala and Panama City-Lynn Haven ranked as more dangerous to pedestrians than Orlando when smaller cities in Florida were added to the mix, and Lakeland-Winter Haven ranked more dangerous than Tampa-St. Petersburg.

The index is a computation that uses the average pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 residents over a two-year period and the percentage of residents who walked to work during that period.

"The Tampa Bay metro ranking could be and is likely caused by many factors," St. Petersburg transportation director Joe Kubicki said. "Unfortunately, the report's analysis doesn't go deep enough to know for certain."

The report notes St. Petersburg's reduction in pedestrian accidents by 50 percent since 2003, when the CityTrails program - with 83 miles of bicycle trails, 10 new miles of sidewalks, enhanced sidewalk repair and beacons at 31 crosswalks - was implemented.

Orlando and Tampa-St. Petersburg top the report's index ranking despite a low proportion of pedestrians who walk to work, 1.3 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

"In other words, the few people who do walk in Orlando face a relatively high risk of being killed in a traffic accident," the report states.

A primary reason that Florida cities log a disproportionate rate of pedestrian deaths is the state's automobile-oriented transportation system, including highways built with an emphasis on the speed of vehicles rather than attention to walkways, the report states.

People who think Florida's retirees are heavily represented in pedestrian deaths might be in for a surprise: The percentage of elderly people dying as pedestrians in Florida is not out of line with the national average, researchers found.

Seventeen percent of Florida's pedestrian deaths in 2007 and 2008 were people 70 or older, the same as the national average.

Half the states had rates of elderly pedestrian deaths higher than Florida.

"Given the benefits that walking provides, from improving health to reducing the costs of congestion, it remains all too dangerous in many parts of the country," the report states.

"The good news is that communities that choose to change road policies and invest in safer designs see fewer deaths and injuries, even as they make their neighborhoods more livable and invite more people to walk and bicycle."

That was a factor in the Hillsborough County Transportation Task Force's recommendation for a 1-cent sales tax increase to fund improved mobility, including light rail, bus and nontransit projects.

A list of projects that could be funded with the tax, if it is placed on a ballot for November 2010 and passes, includes a pedestrian bridge over U.S. 301 north of State Road 674 and sidewalks on 56th Street in Temple Terrace.

When metropolitan areas were compared by the percentage of overall traffic deaths that were pedestrians, Tampa-St. Petersburg ranked fifth nationwide behind New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami-Fort Lauderdale.

Tampa-St. Petersburg reported 192 pedestrian deaths in 2007 and 2008, 22.4 percent of all traffic deaths.

In the past 15 years, more than 76,000 pedestrians have been killed nationwide.