Pedestrians

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year to make our roads safer, yet we are failing to ensure the safety of all of us who engage in the most basic form of transportation -- walking. Millions of people in Americans walk -- to school, to work, to the store, or just around the block for a little bit of exercise. But our findings indicate that every year from 1986 to 1995, approximately 13 pedestrians are killed, and 260 are injured by automobiles in Montana. This carnage is attributable only in part to individual misjudgment -- a failure to "look both ways" as children are taught. These deaths and injuries are also the consequence transportation system gone badly wrong -- a system focused on making the streets safe for cars instead of making communities safe for people. Indeed, in Montana, people are more likely to get killed by a car while walking than they are to be shot and killed by a stranger with a gun.

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