Between 2003 and 2012, 1,539 pedestrians died while walking along the streets of South Florida. That's more pedestrian deaths in any other major metro area except for New York and Los Angeles. So, sadly, it's not much of a surprise that Miami has been ranked the fourth most dangerous metro area for pedestrians in a new study that examines a number of factors for safety on the streets.
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The rankings comes from a new report out today from Smart Growth America.
The report found that there's about 2.58 pedestrian deaths per year for every 100,000 residents in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area. The study also found that about 1.8 percent of people commute by foot here as well.
All in all that put Miami fourth in the "Pedestrian Danger Index," only behind three other areas in Florida. The ranking considers both the number of death and the number of people walking every day. (That's why New York, for instance, doesn't make the cut despite the high number of pedestrians killed.)
Yes, the Sunshine State dominated the list. Here's the top ten:
1. Orlando-Kissimmee, FL
2. Tampa-St. Petersburg- Clearwater, FL
3. Jacksonville, FL
4. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
5. Memphis, TN-MS-AR
6. Birmingham-Hoover, AL
7. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
8. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
9. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
10. Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC
Miami also came in fifth for large metro areas ranked by "percentage of traffic deaths that were pedestrians." About 23 percent of all traffic-related deaths between 2003 and 2012 here were pedestrians.
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