Las Vegas area ranks 21st among worst for pedestrian safety

The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise metropolitan area was ranked the 21st worst for pedestrian safety, while Nevada was listed as the 12th deadliest state for walkers, according to a national study released Tuesday.

The National Complete Streets Coalition, made up of Washington D.C.-based Smart Growth America and other groups, examined 104 major metropolitan regions through a “pedestrian danger index” that compares the number of pedestrian deaths to the number of people who walk to work in each area.

From 2005 to 2014, the Las Vegas area had 401 deaths with a 117.7 rating on the index, according to the group’s “Dangerous By Design” report released Tuesday.

Las Vegas ranked 13th the last time the Streets Coalition’s study was completed in 2014, with an index rating of 102.67. The region was ranked sixth in a study completed in 2011, with a 135.2 index rating.

The three most deadly regions for pedestrians were in Florida, with Cape Coral-Fort Myers ranking first with a 283.1 rating on the index, followed by Palm Bay with a 235.2 rating and the Orlando area with 234.7.

Nevada reported 529 pedestrian deaths from 2005 to 2014, ending up with a 91.2 rating on the group’s pedestrian danger index. Florida was deemed the most dangerous state for pedestrians, with a 177 index rating, followed by Alabama and Louisiana.

“Everyone involved in the street design process — from federal policymakers to local elected leaders to transportation engineers — must take action to end pedestrian deaths,” the report’s authors wrote. “So long as streets are built to prioritize high speeds at the cost of pedestrian safety, this will remain a problem.”

Preliminary figures released this month by the Nevada Department of Transportation show that 78 pedestrians died statewide in 2016, up from 73 fatalities reported a year earlier. Clark County reported 55 pedestrian deaths last year, down from 60 fatalities in 2015.

Nationally, low-income racial minorities and adults 65 and older were at a higher risk of being struck and killed by a car, according to the study. Nearly 35 percent of the U.S. population identified as non-white or Hispanic, but those groups accounted for 46.1 percent of all pedestrian deaths from 2005 to 2014, according to the Streets Coalition’s report.

“People of color are less likely to own a personal vehicle, increasing their likelihood of walking,” the study stated. “Poor neighborhoods and communities of color also have some of the most dangerous pedestrian infrastructure.”

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.