Last week Washington, DC based Transportation for America, released a report that of 52 cities with populations over 1 million, Orlando was ranked #1 and Tampa/St. Pete was #2. Very bad news for runners but certainly no surprise.
The list of the ten most dangerous cities for pedestrians included four Florida cities. Miami was #3 and Jacksonville #4.
Just yesterday a prominent Boston cardiologist Dr. Kenneth Baughman, was struck and killed while running in Orlando. He was crossing a four way intersection at 6 a.m. Baughman was an avid triathlete and runner from Newton, one of the towns along the epic Boston Marathon path.
I don't know if we can put a finger on the reason why Florida is so dangerous for pedestrians, but I don't know any runners who would argue that fact. I experience this danger firsthand when I was hit by a car in the Citrus Park area just two years ago. Amazingly, the woman driving the SUV admitted that she had seen me, but she thought I would stop, despite the fact that she was pulling up to a stop sign on Cain Road, and I had the right of way on Gunn Hwy. As I ran up to the cross street, she looked right at me, approaching on the sidewalk on her right; then she looked to her left, and not seeing any oncoming traffic, proceeded to roll right through the stop sign, striking me. It was terribly frightening, but fortunately she was only rolling. I bounced off the hood, spun a couple of times in the air, and landed on my feet.
Florida has quite a few such dubious distinctions. Too bad.
In recent years I've had the opportunity to spend some time in both Palo Alto, CA, and Boulder, CO. Wow! now those two cities really make it safe for pedestrians. In Boulder, vehicle traffic is pretty much expected to move through the downtown area at idle speed. It is quite clear in both those cities that pedestrians have the right of way, and there is a huge population of happy, safe runners in both cities as well.
Runners in Tampa often run in the street because asphalt is softer than concrete sidewalks, but it's important to remember that those are the most dangerous streets in the country. It's unfortunate, but that's not the point.
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