AAA: Dark City Roads Deadliest for Pedestrians at Night

Source: AAA | February 11, 2025

New research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reveals concerning trends in pedestrian fatalities in the U.S., which have risen by over 80% in the past 15 years after reaching a historic low in 2009. Interestingly, almost the entire increase in pedestrian deaths has occurred on urban arterial roads and after dark. These busy city roads are typically built to quickly move a lot of traffic between metropolitan areas while still allowing access to local streets. This means pedestrians and vehicles often share congested roads that are not always well-lit or have appropriate sidewalks, crosswalks, or traffic signals.

AAA Foundation collaborated with researchers from the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety to study this issue further by performing case studies in three cities with varying levels and trends in pedestrian fatalities. In the cities examined, the researchers found that a large majority of pedestrian fatalities occurred on busy city roads at night, which aligned with national trends.

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