The Miami-Ft. Lauderdale metro area is the fourth most dangerous area for pedestrians in the nation.
The catch: By Florida standards, it's actually pretty safe. Yes, the only metro areas more dangerous for walkers than our own are Jacksonville, Tampa, and, in first place, Orlando.
The data comes form Smart Growth America, which compares the number of pedestrian fatalities to the number of people who regularly commute by foot.
In South Florida, 1,539 pedestrians were killed between 2003 and 2012. Between 2008 and 2012, that's about 2.58 deaths per every 100,000 regular pedestrians. That gives Miami a "pedestrian danger index" of 145.33.
Here are the top 5, based on that index:
1. Orlando-Kissimme: 244.28
2. Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater: 190.13
3. Jacksonville: 182.71
4. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Beach: 145.33
5. Memphis: 131.26
The entire top ten is made up of cities in the south and southwest.
To put it in perspective, the New York City area's PDI is only 28.43.
Miami also ranked fifth for percentage of traffic deaths that were pedestrians.
The study found that 23 percent of people who died in traffic-related deaths in the area between 2003 and 2012 were pedestrians. That's only behind New York, LA, San Francisco and San Jose.
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