Altadena and Pedestrian Safety

A national advocacy group that looked at a decades worth of data ranked the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area as number 27 in a list of the 52-most-dangerous areas for pedestrians nationwide.

The group, Transportation for America, mapped out the more than 47,000 pedestrian deaths in the country from 2000 to 2009, and according to their figures, there were seven people killed in Altadena during that time.

The most recent fatality from that period was a 32-year-old man killed on March 18, 2009 at the intersection of Lake and Mariposa, according to the map, which can be viewed here.

In the last year, though a fatality has not been reported in Altadena, there have been some notable traffic accidents, including:

• A in a crosswalk near the Lake/Altadena intersection in January
• A while crossing the intersection of Altadena and Glenrose last October
• Two were injured when an on Lake Avenue.
• A at East Woodbury Road and North Garfield Avenue in March.

The full Transportation for America report notes that 12 percent of total traffic accidents involve pedestrians and suggests that the main cause of pedestrian deaths are roads that are poorly designed for pedestrian safety.

It makes a number of recommendations on how to fix the problem, including expansion of sidewalks, trails, and bike lanes, as well as prioritizing walkers and de-prioritizing the speed of traffic in designing side streets and connector roads.