INTRODUCTION	Previous  Index  Next
	Pedestrians are an integral part of any transportation system. Any driver becomes a pedestrian the moment he or she leaves a vehicle or bicycle. Public transportation users are pedestrians when they walk to the public transit stop and again when they walk to their destination. If the entire transportation system is to function efficiently, we must plan for the needs and expectations of people who walk. This publication is intended to make the places we walk safer, more comfortable, and more desirable as destinations. According to Mean Streets 2004, a Surface Transportation Policy Project, the city of Phoenix has the tenth highest pedestrian danger index (PDI), 117.2. The PDI compares the annual rate of pedestrian deaths relative to the number of people who walk in a community. This high score is attributed to sprawling, low-density development connected by high speed arterials. However, this number is down 12 percent from the 1994-1995 PDI. The 2004 report states that 4,827 people died in 2003 while walking down the street, down from 4,919 in 2002. In each of these same two years, there were 70,000 injuries. In Arizona, there were 156 fatalities in 2002, and 125 in 2003, an average annual rate per 100,000 residents of 2.55 percent. However, spending on pedestrian projects is not commensurate with the apparent need. Says Mean Streets 2004, "Nationally, less than one percent of federal transportation funds have so far been spent on pedestrian facilities". BACKGROUND The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) Regional Council formed the Pedestrian Working Group in 1993 to educate the region about pedestrian issues, and to promote the development of facilities for people to walk. The Working Group consists of MAG members, and representatives of the planning, architecture, landscape architecture, and development communities.