In March, the Governors Highway Safety Association announced that some 3,024 people died while walking in the US during the first half of 2025, a drop of almost 11% from 2024. It’s a welcome dip, but the GHSA quickly put the figure in perspective, noting that footgoer fatalities remain 2.5% higher than in 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic coincided with a surge in traffic deaths.
Moreover, the country remains a grim outlier when it comes to pedestrian safety: Between 2013 and 2022, deaths rose by half in the US, even as 27 other rich nations saw an ...