Smart Growth America report<\/a> shows the Orlando area fell from No. 1 to No. 25 nationally.<\/p>\nNews 6 Traffic Safety Expert Trooper Steve says the change is significant \u2014 but not a signal to ease up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t just jump from first place to second place. We went from first to 25th\u2026 that\u2019s a big jump.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report found 433 pedestrian deaths from 2015 to 2019 in the Orlando-area region studied. From 2020 to 2024, that number fell to 419.<\/p>\n
Trooper Steve says improvements that make streets safer for walkers often help everyone \u2014 including drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny type of city that takes any effort to enhance its pedestrian safety\u2026 that\u2019s a move in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report points to funding and updated safety practices \u2014 including changes to intersections and pedestrian crossings.<\/p>\n
At one crosswalk, people News 6 spoke with said the updates feel long overdue. News 6 asked a pedestrian what they thought when they saw the crosswalk: \u201cOh. About time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with the improved ranking, safety gaps remain. On Mercy Drive, for example, a sidewalk ends abruptly \u2014 forcing people to step into areas meant for cars.<\/p>\n
Other areas in Florida ranked higher (worse) on the list:<\/p>\n
Tampa area: No. 8<\/p>\n
Brevard County area: No. 11<\/p>\n
Volusia County (including Daytona Beach): No. 14<\/p>\n
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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 For years, the greater Orlando area carried a grim title: the deadliest place in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[315,147,1335,139,141,140,6562,504,2261],"class_list":["post-332838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-brevard-county","tag-central-florida","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pedestrian","tag-safety","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}