Tucson Looks To Reverse Trend Of Rising Road Deaths

TUCSON, AZ — A pedestrian dies on average every 10 days in Tucson so far in 2021.

The Old Pueblo has seen nine pedestrian deaths in the first 90 days of this year, more than the eight deaths in all of 2020, which vexes those in charge of the city's roadways.

One such person is Krista Hansen, who serves as the transportation and mobility lead planner for the city of Tucson. Hansen spent much of the past year poring through the data to try to determine what's going on across Tucson.

Tucson has seen its number of fatal car accidents and pedestrian deaths increase each year since 2016. Hansen said it is far from being the only municipality facing such issues.

"One local life [lost] is too many on our roadways. ... I don't want to just break this down to just numbers and stats," Hansen said. "But overall, we've been seeing a trend in the last number of years in terms of the rise in both pedestrian motorcycle and vehicle fatalities."

Hansen identified a number of root causes for the rising number of pedestrian and vehicular deaths. The current COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to cut back on their driving time, which has caused them to drive erratically when they do get behind the wheel again, she said.

Another possible factor: Impairment is rising as a factor in collisions even as overall traffic volumes decrease in Tucson and beyond, she said. "I don't know ... exactly what to tie that to, but I think across the country, we're definitely seeing speed and impairment as contributing crash factors," Hansen said.

"It looks like the majority [of deaths] were mid-block crashes, meaning that it wasn't at a signalized intersection or at a crosswalk," she added. "And I think it's easy sometimes to jump to trying to put blame on who was in the wrong in this situation."

Whatever the causes, Tucson saw the number of fatal accidents nearly double, from 52 in 2016 to 102 in 2019, according to City-Data.com.

In response, Hansen and the city have undertaken a citywide transportation master plan called Move Tucson, which seeks to identify ways to make the city's streets safer. The plan has already gone through a public engagement phase with a goal of implementation by the spring or summer.

One possible solution: adding crosswalks and pedestrian crossings across arterial roadways, where most of the city's deaths occur.

"I think both the design, including the human factors of deciding when and where to cross and then looking at speed, are key," Hansen said. "Because we also know with speed, the faster that someone's going, the longer it takes to react.

"So we identified our high crash network, which are these arterial roadways, with speed limits that are 35 and over," she added. "And so we have both short-term and long-term action items with it."

Short-term action items include creating safety corridors, where police focus their attention and where speeding and crashes are known to occur more frequently. Other items include adding flashing lights, rumble strips and signage along arterial roadways. Such actions should make it easier for drivers to recognize pedestrians in the roadway and reduce the chance of collisions.

The city's Move Tucson campaign also aims to improve crosswalk timing and to add speed feedback signs that tip drivers off when they're driving too fast.

Another key part of the traffic plan is to prevent crashes involving motorcyclists. The city has seen three deaths connected with such crashes in the first 90 days of this year, equal to the total number for all of 2020.

Hansen is confident Tucson is ready to create safer streets for residents. "

I think there's a lot of momentum and energy," Hansen said. "I think both internally and throughout our city, people want safer streets and building and designing roads that account for all modes of transportation. So whether you're walking, biking, driving, riding the bus, there's been a real shift in both our internal framework and goals and moving forward and recognizing that people want walkable streets."

For now, the goal for Hansen and the city's transportation and mobility team is to hammer home the message that excess speed kills.

"Understanding that even a few miles an hour faster can make a huge difference to someone who's on a motorcycle, walking and biking in terms of their safety," Hansen said.

She hoped that drivers will find a way to rid themselves of in-car distractions and keep their eyes on the road. Slowing down and paying attention can ensure that drivers don't contribute to the growing number of roadway deaths in Tucson, Hansen added.

"As we all know, distractions in our cars, with phones and everything, even those small seconds can make a huge difference in terms of seeing the person and stopping," she said.