Roads designed to enable high speeds where people and activity are present are the most dangerous type of road. Roadway design influences how people drive, providing nonstop guidance and visual cues that shape behavior and encourage high speeds. Many of the most dangerous roads have multiple wide, straight, high-speed lanes along with other design elements that send powerful, but unconscious, signals to drivers that the street is built primarily for moving vehicles as quickly as possible, even when it’s filled with numerous destinations and people walking to reach them. In addition, these multi-lane roads often have frequent curb cuts and driveways that put people walking in harm’s way. Many roads lack frequent crosswalks or signals to protect people crossing the street, or safe crossings are missing in the places where people most often want to cross. All of these design elements are focused on improving throughput or prioritizing moving as many vehicles as quickly as possible over the needs of other people using the road, like those walking.

Despite being designed primarily for moving cars quickly, these streets also serve as neighborhood streets, economic drivers for local commerce, and vital connections to work, school, parks, and more. They move a lot of cars through communities. But in doing so, they create substantial risk for the people who live in these communities who simply want to cross the street to get to a corner store, park, school, or other everyday destinations.

The good news is that actively designing for slower speeds can produce significant safety benefits, even with minimal impact on traffic delays and congestion.

The data in Dangerous by Design continues to demonstrate that the epidemic of preventable deaths and injuries for people walking is getting worse, not better. Using a different approach to street design and funding decisions that prioritizes safety over speed is critical to solving this problem.