Ending pedestrian deaths in Pittsburgh is a team effort
Traffic deaths are a growing public health crisis , and not just in Pittsburgh. The Governors Highway Safety Association estimates that crashes claimed more than 7,600 lives in 2022 — a 77% increase over 2021's numbers — and cost U.S. healthcare systems some $55 billion . In August, three local bicyclist fatalities in two weeks provided a grim local example of the problem. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation found that traffic-related fatalities across the commonwealth mirror national trends, rising 2.25% in 2023 .
Local leaders and advocates haven't given up on trying to solve the problem, and Pittsburgh has made some progress, reducing pedestrian deaths to seven in 2023. But doing so requires a multi-pronged effort involving legislation, infrastructure projects, and extensive public input. The city is pursuing this under the auspices of Vision Zero , introduced Mar. 4.
On paper, the goal is simple: reduce all pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries to zero.
But the idea faces headwinds from national auto industry trends, local habits, and Pittsburgh's infrastructure itself. So, how has the first year of Vision Zero gone so far?
Bucking trends
Similar to other civic issues, Vision Zero requires collaboration among agencies that don't always share the same priorities or systems, including the city government and the relatively new Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (or DOMI, created in 2017); advocacy groups like BikePGH and Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PFPT); PennDOT; and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.
Communication between the city and PennDOT, which maintains state roads such as Routes 8 and 28 and Boulevard of the Allies (technically Route 885), has been particularly important given the city's role in policing these busy thoroughfares.
"On those 10% of roadways in our city that are responsible for the vast majority of serious injuries and fatalities, about half of those are PennDOT owned roadways," DOMI director Kim Lucas tells . But "even when PennDOT owns a roadway, the city is still involved and responsible for things like traffic signal operations, curbside management, and those sorts of elements.
DOMI management analyst Stephanie Gagne recalls how better communication with PennDOT resulted in swift changes to a dangerous intersection on Boulevard of the Allies, where misuse of a left-turn lane for ambulances led to two fatal crashes.
"We worked with PennDOT to see what we could do in the short term," Gagne says. The state agency quickly replaced a broken sign and striped the left turn lane.
The Boulevard is one of many Pittsburgh streets flagged on the city's High Injury Network Map . Others include Bigelow Blvd., Penn Ave., Forbes Ave., and W. Carson St. Paired with the city's Crash Data Dashboard , it paints a clear, if unsettling, picture of the high frequency of crashes in Pittsburgh.
In 2023, there were 3,485 crashes in the city, 20 of which resulted in fatalities, with seven pedestrians and one cyclist killed. When broadened to serious injuries, those numbers rise modestly, with the overwhelming majority of both deaths and serious injuries occurring to motorists (angle crashes and collisions with fixed objects make up a majority of these).
Eric Boerer, advocacy director at BikePGH, says the relatively low number of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities and injuries is a double-edged sword.
"We see roughly 20-ish, 25 fatalities total per year. And every year, roughly a third of those are pedestrians," Boerer tells . "Through five years, 20 times five, that's 100 people. One hundred Pittsburghers are no longer here because of how people drive. But that number isn't so high that it's easy to trace patterns."
Boerer credits the city with making that data publicly available and easy to sift through, although he notes that crashes are "under-reported for bicyclists and pedestrians," in part because crashes that don't result in a serious injury (e.g., requiring an ambulance) or a car needing to be towed don't typically end up in PennDOT's reported data.
"They're not capturing anything, like, if there's a crash and the bicyclist's bike is destroyed, and the bicyclist is fine and walks away and takes the bus home," Boerer notes. "So it immediately eliminates all of these potential reportable crashes."
PennDot does aggregate a substantial amount of data — the year-to-date dashboard notes modest declines in total fatalities, with small drops in bicycle fatalities and motorcycle fatalities but a slight rise in crashes in which a driver and/or passenger(s) was unrestrained. Total crashes are down over 20 years of data, which includes figures for driver age, nature of the accident, and whether or not a driver was intoxicated.
Within the Pennsylvania Crash Information Tool , there's also extensive data on vehicles, though the sheer quantity makes it difficult to parse. Of 18,525 crashes in Allegheny in which a vehicle was recorded, some 10,381 (roughly 56%) appeared to involve one of several classifications of truck. However, nearly 1,000 crashes don't specify vehicle type or any information at all.
While there is also a record of crash angle and VIN, it would take further analysis to draw any firm conclusions about the relationship between vehicle type and the circumstances of deadly or injurious crashes, although data suggests vehicle size and weight play a key role in the seriousness of crashes with pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and others.
What's indisputable is pedestrian fatalities in Pennsylvania are up statewide over 20 years (191 in 2023 vs. 141 in 2004). Gagne says that, with so many variables, reducing this number to zero in Pittsburgh often comes down to individual and collective choices.
"Vision Zero is absolutely a realistic goal," she tells . "Many of the serious injuries and crashes that we see on our roadways are the result of choices people might have made."
"I think that Vision Zero is not just a program or initiative, but it's really a mindset that we're going to be pushing forward for years to come," DOMI director Lucas adds.
It takes a village
Advancing a more holistic transportation mindset in Pittsburgh has been a group effort. Lucas says, for one, "we love working with our trail partners." She cites Friends of the Riverfront as one important partner, noting, personally, that trails make it safer for her to navigate Pittsburgh car-free with two small kids.
"How I use and when I use my bike is a little different than what it used to be," she says. "Having different types of facilities out there that are accessible to different levels of comfort is hugely important to the work we do."
Boerer likewise describes Vision Zero as a more overarching project — he serves on the city's Complete Streets advisory committee alongside members of PFPT, Access Mob Pittsburgh , and other organizations. (The Complete Streets initiative, signed under former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, turns 10 next year.)
Within the enforcement space, Lucas says city government is working closely with first responders to actively respond to crashes. "We're working with detectives from the collision investigation unit to do site visits every time a fatal crash occurs," she says. This results not just in analysis, but solutions such as the Boulevard of the Allies fix.
"It's so easy to forget that DOMI is only about seven years old, and the traffic calming program as we've known it is only five years old," she says. With the installation of speed humps and a variety of traffic signal projects, she says the city has seen an up-to-30% reduction in crashes along some stretches of the High Injury Network.
"Things that a lot of people have sort of come to expect from the city, like putting in speed bumps or making safer pedestrian crossings, is something that's really only had a dedicated emphasis and department in recent history," Lucas says.
Boerer says this material work is important. "Usually what the [city] needs to do is just bring speeds down — that includes doing interventions that basically — I hate to use the word 'force' — but force drivers to go the speed limit," he tells
Locals, he says, should also speak up: "the number-one thing is make sure your councilperson knows that street safety is important to you." Boerer also says neighborhood bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups are another avenue for concerned residents.
As the city moves ahead with a proposed red-light camera program , many such interventions have gone in, including the two-way conversion of the former Penn Circle, traffic calming along streets such as Stanton Ave. and Grandview Ave., and pedestrian safety installations in Central Lawrenceville. The city continues to install leading pedestrian interval signals at crosswalks that give walkers and rollers a headstart on motorists.
Taken collectively, Boerer, Lucas, and others say these projects represent a holistic effort to advance what advocates have been pushing for since at least the early 2000s.
"There are a lot of people who've been working in this city for literally decades trying to make it safer for people," Lucas says. "And it's been really great to be able to work together with them to build on their knowledge."
