Pittsburgh Needs to Implement Traffic Calming to Improve Street Safety and Reduce Traffic Deaths

In November 2014 a truck hit two pedestrians in a crosswalk on East Carson Street, killing one of them.  In January 2016 a 36 year old woman was hit and killed after walking into Maytide street in Carrick.  That same month a 23 year old man hit a deer on Windgap Avenue in the middle of the day.  After getting out of his car he was hit himself and killed.  There are many, many, many examples of pedestrians being killed by motor vehicles in Pittsburgh.  

A review of Allegheny County motor vehicle accident data shows that between 2004 and 2017 there were 292 motor vehicle fatalities and 36,205 injuries in Pittsburgh alone.  77 of the fatalities and 286 injuries were pedestrians. A higher percentage of car injuries are fatal for pedestrians (21%) than for those injured by cars overall (0.8%).

In 2017 there were 37,133 motor vehicle fatalities in the United States.  Every month, drivers kill more Americans than the terrorists did on September 11.  Every 19 months, drivers kill more Americans than were killed during the eight years of the Vietnam war.

The fatality rate in 2015 for motor vehicles was 10.6 per 100,000 in the United States.  Much lower fatality rates are achievable. Based on WHO Data for 2015, the fatality rate was only 4.7 per 100,000 in Japan and 2.8 in Sweden.  If the United States reduced its fatality rate to 2.8, it would save 25,662 lives a year.

There are two methods that have been clearly demonstrated to reduce crashes and save lives:

1. Increase the mode share of mass transit, which is far safer than travel by private automobile.
2. Redesign our roads to induce drivers to reduce their speed.

The rest of this essay will focus on the second of these methods. As this essay by Alon Levy explains, the countries that have been most successful at keeping motor vehicle deaths low have focused on street design rather than enforcement.  

Traffic engineers throughout America have mistakenly applied highway standards to urban and suburban streets.  This is less common within the city of Pittsburgh where most of the street network was designed before the widespread adoption of the automobile.  This may be a factor for why Pittsburgh’s fatality rate of 6.4 per 100,000 is lower than the national average. However a hostile street design approach can be seen throughout Pittsburgh’s suburbs.

In his essay, Confessions of a Recovering Traffic Engineer, Charles Mahrohn writes:

Wider, faster, treeless roads not only ruin our public places, they kill people…When you can’t let your kids play in the yard, let alone ride their bike to the store, because you know the street is dangerous, then the engineering profession is not providing society any real value.

Figure 1: If you need a sign to tell people to slow down, you’ve designed your street wrong

The following features make for a safe urban street:

1. Narrow streets and lanes are safer because they slow drivers down.
2. Street trees create a tunnel affect that reduces driver speed.  Studies have shown adding street trees in urban environments reduces traffic fatalities.
3. Traffic calming devices such as speed humps.
4. A more comprehensive network of bike lanes.  Bike lanes have been shown to provide safety improvements for motorists as well as cyclists.
5. Good condition sidewalks that are ADA compliant where the topography permits on all streets with speed limits above 15 mph.

While the methods to save lives are known, the resources to do it are lacking. The city of Pittsburgh under-resources motor vehicle safety compared with other sources of injury and death.

Automotive crashes cause far more harm than other problems that local governments spend resources to address:

Table 1: Government Mitigated Sources of Harm

	Violent Crime	Fire	Motor Vehicle Crash
Fatalities	17,284	3,400	37,133
Injuries	1.25 million	14,670	2.75 million
Property Damage	$15.3 billion	$23.0 billion	$242 billion

National numbers for 2017; except motor vehicle property damage figure is for 2010.  In the violent crime column, 1.25 million is the number of incidents of violent crime.  Since this category includes crimes with only the threat of violence, not every incident would have resulted in an injury so 1.25 million is probably an overestimate.

Of the 37,133 motor vehicle fatalities in 2017, 6,988 of them were non-occupants (mostly pedestrians).  Data was unavailable to fully create a version of Table 1 that is specific to Pittsburgh. Given that there are more pedestrians in cities than suburban or rural areas, a higher proportion of fatalities are pedestrians.  This is true in Pittsburgh where 26% of motor vehicle fatalities were pedestrians from 2004-2018, compared with 16% nationally in 2017.

Table 2: Comparison of Pittsburgh Safety Expenditures

	2019 Operating Budget	2019 Capital Budget	Total
Police Department	$104,545,326	$1,668,800	$106,214,126
Fire Department	$ 76,092,133	$207,000	$76,299,133
Traffic Calming	$425,083	$4,536,295	$4,961,378

Note: Traffic Calming figures are a best estimate.  See Appendix for the basis of estimate.

A comparison of the national fatalities with Pittsburgh’s spending is illustrated in Figures 2 and 3.  These figures show how inadequate spending is on traffic calming compared with the scope of the problem.

Figure 2: Comparison of National Fatalities

Figure 3: Comparison of Pittsburgh Spending

It is true that the police and fire departments do more than just reduce crime and fight fires.  While improving street design is the most effective way to improve safety, police enforcement of traffic laws is indispensable.  A majority of the calls to the fire department are medical, with the fire fighters acting as first responders. Many of these calls are for automobile crashes.  Improved safety through street design therefore has the benefit of freeing fire and police department resources for other functions.

Pittsburgh is making progress in this area.  Speed humps have recently been proposed for Grandview Avenue.  The Mayor’s preliminary 2020 budget increases funding for complete streets.  However the resources and attention devoted still falls short of the magnitude of the problem.

Pittsburgh can and should do more to keep our streets safe!

Appendix: Estimate of Traffic Calming Budget

The statistics listed in Table 1 for fire deaths, injuries, and property loss in 2017 can be found here on FEMA’s website.

The sources for the crime statistics in Table 1 is the FBI website, which as data for murders, violent crime, and property crime.

The source for the motor vehicle injury and fatality numbers in Table 1 is the Bureau of Transportation Statistics data.  The source for property damage caused by motor vehicle crashes is this report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The values in Table 2 were taken from the Pittsburgh capital and operating budgets. These budgets do not explicitly break out the proportion that is spent on traffic calming efforts. The budget for projects categorized as complete streets has a capital budget of $4,536,295.  These projects include traffic calming as well as other items directly related to road safety.

The operating budget for the department of mobility and infrastructure (DOMI) in FY19 is $\$$7,961,019.  The total DOMI managed engineering and construction budget in FY19 is $\$$84,956,368. Assuming the proportion of the DOMI operating budget dedicated to complete streets is proportional to the amount of capital funds allocated, DOMI will spend $425,083 in 2019 on operating costs related to complete streets.

The funding included in Table 2 and Figure 3 do not include all of the spending on law enforcement methods of reducing crime.  They do not include spending on Allegheny county police, Pennsylvania state policy, or the FBI, or spending on the judiciary or jails or prisons.