San Jose Mercury News Article on Pedestrian Fatalities

Today's Mercury News featured in the local "Valley" section this morning an article about the recent and dramatic rise in pedestrian deaths last year and more specifically in the last 3 and one-half months. Pedestrian deaths almost doubled from 2006 to 2007 in San Jose. No specific figures were given on pedestrian deaths for Santa Clara County as a whole, only that there were 14 other pedestrian fatalities in the South Bay area. San Francisco also exhibit a similar rise in pedestrian deaths last year.

Lt. George Graham was quoted as saying, "This startles me, I don't understand it."
The article stated that they are reviewing traffic reports looking for a common thread. In discussing other pedestrian casualties - including the young girl walking her bike in a crosswalk towards a popular park in Willow Glen - the police have either stated it was the pedestrians fault or it was due to some environmental factor such as sun glare.

"He especially wants officers to target wide, six- or eight-lane expressways where pedestrians can be surprised at how much pavement a car going 45 mph or faster can cover in mere seconds.", the article states.

Common Threads

Common threads that I can see after removing somewhat obvious reasons such as alcohol, hearing disability, and age (84). Outside of these factors, it appears as though some common threads would be the area, the useability of the roadway for pedestrians and the fact that some pedestrians were born in other countries with different rules, traffic flows and speeds.

But first a comment on the new enforcement target of six or eight lane expressways. By their very design the only roadway more deadly is an interstate freeway. Take for example speed on an average Silicon Valley expressway. The posted speed limit is 45; the real speed is 55, and in the case of a recent teenagers death the speed on San Tomas Expressway was 75. In addition to speed, a pedestrian has to cross six to eight lanes of traffic with no protected island in the middle. Let's perform some basic math here. An average pedestrian covers 3 miles an hour when out for a stroll. Advancing age or the burden of carrying children or shopping this pace can slow to 2 miles an hour. Doing the math that works out to 3 to 4.5 feet per second. Now, where Estella Bacong was crossing E. Capitol Expressway near Quimby is about Rd. is about 130 feet across. It is actually even wider at the intersection approaching 160 feet (or as close as I can get with my Google Maps Distance Measuring Tool). Dividing 130 feet by a conservative 4.5 feet per second it would take her just under 30 seconds to cross the street. If she was not so quick or carrying shopping bags it might have take her up to 40 seconds to cross the street. So while she is traversing the expressway at 4.5 feet a second, a Toyota 4Runner with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 5,000 is traveling at about 74 feet per second; worse odds than even the stingiest Las Vegas casino.

As long as you have people who are dependent on walking to get around town in a city that was designed for cars; and each year those cars get heavier, travel faster, with drivers who are more hurried and distracted, you are going to be assured of more and deadlier accidents.

Without climbing on too high of a soapbox here, a daily example is in order. In my neighborhood is a school with a radar detector and sign unit that displays a drivers speed. On any given school day with children present (and even in the crosswalk) vehicles approach doing upwards of 40 miles an hour in a 25 MPH zone. Not once have I seen any speed enforcement present in front of this school.

I wish the city of San Jose luck but it will take more than just finding fault with pedestrians in having to deal with a system that was not designed by or for them.

www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden