Why dangerous streets are concentrated in minority neighborhoods, and what to do about it.
I grew up outside of Philadelphia, and getting into the city meant going one of two ways: a series of interstates taking us directly from our pastoral suburb to Center City, or Route 3, which cuts its way through West Philly while pausing at what seemed like an inconvenient number of traffic lights. Almost invariably, we chose the highways. |
Route 3 seemed somehow fraught. Vehicles whizzed by older people lugging grocery bags. Children walked the narrow line between road and landscaping shrubbery on their way home from Wawa. It was so clear, even from the car, that this street cut through vital living space for West Philly residents, prioritizing those of us inside vehicles over the people living and walking there. |
It wasn't until working on this story about road deaths with Adam Paul Susaneck that I fully understood the meaning of Route 3. It's a classic example of an arterial: a high-speed road designed to get suburbanites from outside of the city and into the center with as little fuss as possible. Well, fuss for them. As with so many other things in America, these thoroughfares have historically been planned and built in a way that was disadvantageous to predominantly Black neighborhoods like West Philly, compromising the quality of life for the residents there in favor of increasing traffic volume — often for the benefit of suburban white commuters. That has had deadly consequences. |
As one of the graphics editors for the piece, I delved into the data on exactly how much more dangerous roads like these have made Black neighborhoods. Black pedestrians are more than twice as likely as white pedestrians to be struck and killed by a car in America. And cyclists are 4.5 times as likely. Those numbers shocked me, but perhaps they shouldn't have. Anyone who has lived along or used an arterial has seen cars flashing by at potentially unsafe speeds while pedestrians navigate a dearth of safe crossings. The data simply reveals how accurate that perception is, and how much these design choices have disproportionately affected Black communities. |
I encourage you to read Adam's piece start to finish. It's a fascinating dive into the intersection of street design and justice that will show you how America endangers pedestrians and cyclists every day — and how we could choose to change that. |
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