Smart Growth America recently released its annual “Dangerous by Design 2026” report of pedestrian deaths in America. For many years, the Orlando metro area ranked as the worst place in America for pedestrian deaths along wide, high-speed streets such as John Young Parkway, Semoran Boulevard and Orange Blossom Trail.
In 2024 — the year of the recently released statistics — Orlando fell to No. 25 on the list.
Bike/Walk Central Florida stated, “For us, this report has long been part of our ‘why’ — a reminder of the urgency behind our work to advance safer streets and support Vision Zero across the region.”
I first started covering the Vision Zero initiative in 2018, when Orlando adopted Vision Zero principles.
Vision Zero is a global movement that promotes safe, healthy and equitable mobility by recognizing that traffic deaths are preventable. Vision Zero is supported through a Safe System Approach to improve safety for all road users by:
Designing smarter streets to support safer driving behavior.
Engaging communities through education and awareness.
Prioritizing high-risk areas with vulnerable road users.
Other cities have also had great success with Vision Zero, which has the goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2040.
According to the annual report, Orlando recorded the third-largest decrease in long-term pedestrian fatality rates, which is great news and proves that the steps taken by our local officials are working.
But there were still 65 people killed while walking in the Orlando metro area in 2024.
It will take many years to undo the auto-oriented designs of many of our streets and roads.
The Smart Growth report states: “Across the country, roads continue to be designed that prioritize vehicle speed over safety — and everything else. Outdated design standards that produce dangerous speeds in places where people are present, too-wide lanes, infrequent pedestrian crossings, and poor visibility continue to produce the deadly outcomes they were built to prevent. After decades of preventable deaths, insufficient policy change, and broken promises, our streets are still dangerous by design.”
“Slightly less deadly is not the same thing as safe.” — Smart Growth America
But the report is encouraging in that Orlando is improving, and it is right that we support these initiatives to save lives — and property, for that matter.
“We are making progress here in Orlando!” said Eric Grimmer, chair of the Orange County Transportation Mobility Advisory Commission. “We still have a long way to go, but it’s invigorating to see the results the hard work is yielding.”
You can read the full report at https://lnkd.in/gefdQg8J.
Narrowed lanes on Conway Road, along with protected bike lanes, make the street safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. (LOGAN LAMPHERE)