An outfit called Smart Growth America has issued a report saying that Tucson ranks fourth among the five most dangerous places in America for pedestrians.
Naturally, Tucson politicians got out their standard script of what Tucson needs to do to make the city safer for walkers. It usually entails the redesign of streets to slow vehicles, more separation between sidewalks and streets, better speed enforcement, and more mid-block crosswalks where pedestrians can activate a stop light.
As an avid walker who walks five miles a day and has walked in scores of cities, suburbs and rural areas, I always take an interest in the subject and am usually amused and bemused by the political commentary.
The first question to ask about any report is whether the outfit that published the report has an agenda that calls into question its objectivity.
Well, Smart Growth America believes in high-density development connected by public transit, so that a city can be “walkable,” to use a voguish buzzword. In other words, it wants to reduce dependency on cars and stop cities from expanding into the suburbs and exurbs.
“Walkable” has a different meaning to me. It means a place where my wife and I can safely walk five miles in the early morning darkness before the harmful rays of the Tucson sun cause further skin damage. It also means not having to stop for a traffic light every block, not worrying about criminals and rabid dogs running loose, and not encountering deranged street people whose state of mind is unknown.
Oh, and given our age, we need to walk where restrooms are not only available but safe and clean.
Our criteria are not met in high-density parts of town but are met in suburbia. For instance, we walk in the Tucson suburb of the Foothills, where a resort’s restrooms are available at any time, and where a supermarket’s restroom is available starting at 6:00 am.
Incidentally, there are no sidewalks where we walk, but there are many pedestrians (and cyclists). Yet pedestrian deaths are virtually non-existent.
Anyway, here are the top-five cities in pedestrian deaths per 100,000 population, according to Smart Growth America:
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Bakersfield-Delano, California
- Tucson, Arizona
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
I asked myself what these cities could possibly have in common, other than being in the Sunbelt.
Well, upon further research, I found that all five have a poverty rate above the national average. To wit:
Memphis: 24%
Albuquerque: 14.7%
Bakersfield-Delano: 18.5%
Tucson: 18.1%
Baton Rouge: 27.5%
Notes: 1) Some reputable sources say that the national poverty rate is 10.4% while others say it is 12.9%, depending on how it is measured and who is included. 2) Albuquerque’s poverty rate seems low relative to the city’s conditions and crime.
Is it possible that poverty is a causal factor in pedestrian deaths?
To hypothesize: Perhaps cities spend less money on pedestrian safety in poor neighborhoods. Or perhaps the poor tend to have more problems with substance abuse, so that higher numbers of pedestrians (and drivers) in poor neighborhoods are impaired and thus more prone to put themselves in harm’s way.
I haven’t found any conclusive studies on these hypotheses. More research is needed.
I do know that Tucson’s high poverty is largely the result of decades of bad governance—of politicians who recite the standard pieties about the poor and disadvantaged but have embraced socioeconomic policies that have kept the city poorer than it would have otherwise been.
Smart Growth America said that African-American pedestrians have a fatality rate that is 171% of the national average. The rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives is 367% of the national average.
If that’s accurate, the reason could be that these groups have higher poverty and thus higher rates of substance abuse.
In any event, Tucson doesn’t have a large African-American population, but like much of Arizona, it does have a large Native-American population, although most Native Americans live in nearby tribal communities and not in the city.
Before Tucson’s leaders go off half-cocked and possibly waste money on the redesign of streets, they should determine if the root cause of the city’s high rate of pedestrian deaths is the poverty that they have had a hand in creating.
Mr. Cantoni is an author, activist and retired business executive living in Tucson.
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