The Anchorage Assembly and local politicians should move quickly to demand road safety action after the 12th pedestrian death this year, as described in a recent article in this publication; however, their proposed plan to reduce road speeds and increase street lighting does not adequately address the fundamental problem of pedestrian deaths and will certainly not lead to Vision Zero, a commitment for cities to eliminate road traffic deaths and serious injuries while increasing safe and equal mobility for all.

Extensive research shows that driver behavior is influenced by signals from the built environment. In the article “Dangerous By Design,” published by Smart Growth America, an organization focused on community development, the report highlighted that “roadway design has a major impact on how people drive and often has a greater impact on driver behavior than the posted speed limit… (because) the road design is always present, constantly providing clues and visual cues. For example, reducing the speed on Northern Lights Boulevard or C Street will not change the fact that these are four-lane roads that signal to drivers that they are on a highway where they can drive fast. A better design for the many four-lane roads in Anchorage Bowl would be to convert the four lanes to two car lanes, a dedicated bus lane and a barrier-protected sidewalk for bikes and pedestrians like the one being tested on A Street this summer. Our city is not dense enough to require four-lane roads to handle the volume of traffic that travels through the area every day.

Walking around Anchorage is not pleasant. A few years ago, during a frosty February, I tried to walk down 36th Avenue from Seward Highway to Denali Street with my son in a sturdy jogging stroller. This experience was not only terrifying, but downright impossible. The sidewalks were not cleared of snow and for most of the trip I had to walk with my stroller on the side of the road while drivers honked and, in one case, threatened me. I don’t have mobility issues, but walking with a wheelchair for many years has given me a little insight into understanding how people with mobility issues – our older folks and those in wheelchairs – can experience mobility challenges such as raised curbs, icing and short lights at pedestrian crossings.

There are a number of ‘fast build’, temporary, low-cost roadway interventions that a municipality can start testing immediately. Because we are a winter city, the municipality should prioritize clearing snow from sidewalks and bike paths on city streets (not just trails). In many cities across the Circumpolar North region, local authorities have already implemented this change to clear pedestrian and cycle paths in front of roads, as they have found that the practice significantly increases the likelihood that people will choose not to use their car during the winter months and those without drivers can travel safely in winter conditions. Additionally, although it may be counterintuitive, increasing the number of pedestrians on sidewalks and paths reduces the number of pedestrians hit by cars because the increased number of pedestrians signals to drivers that they should move slower in the space – that the space is shared, not just for cars .

I would also recommend that simply increasing the lighting time at crosswalks would also reduce the likelihood of pedestrian injuries and fatalities. For example, to cross the Seward Freeway at 36th Avenue, you wouldn’t actually be able to walk – you’d have to run to get to the other side before the light changed. In the future, the municipality should consider building additional pedestrian bridges in places like this particular crossing, which really cannot be crossed safely given the volume and speed of traffic at this intersection. In the long term, we need more pedestrian crossings, and there should be flashing warning signals at crossings, telling drivers to come to a complete stop. There are many examples of innovative ways to slow down cars at crosswalks in cities around the world: murals on the sidewalk, bright flags that pedestrians can hold on to while crossing, even “zebras”, at-risk youth employed by city authorities who work to calm traffic and educating citizens on road safety in La Paz, Bolivia.

I have been tracking pedestrian death data in Anchorage for the last 15 years and most of the fatalities occurred because someone tried to run across the road not in a crosswalk, but in the middle of a long stretch of road where a driver would not expect to see a crosswalk. We need to add midway crosswalks on Benson Boulevard, Northern Lights Boulevard, and A and C Streets – not just at intersections with major cross streets. The crosswalks on these roads are almost a mile apart – so it’s no surprise that someone might run across them to catch a bus or make sure they get to work or school on time.

In the “Dangerous by Design” report, the authors note that “Black and Native Americans, older adults, and people who walk in low-income communities die at higher rates and face higher levels of risk compared to all Americans.” I would venture to guess that most people walking in Anchorage do not do so for pleasure, but out of necessity, since owning a car is out of reach for them. I challenge our community leaders and technocrats, such as urban transportation planners, to start viewing pedestrian deaths as an equity issue, because only by framing this issue as “fair mobility” will we begin to create the necessary solutions to become a Vision Zero community.

Bree Kessler co-founder of PARTICIPATE, a social impact company that aims to increase participation in decision-making processes in the community. Her academic research examines the interactions of the built environment with human behavior, with an emphasis on placemaking in circumpolar northern and winter cities.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a wide range of viewpoints. To submit an article for consideration, please email comment(at)adn.com. Submissions shorter than 200 words should be sent to: [email protected] Or click here to upload via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and comments Here.