Pedestrian-Unfriendly Statistics Belie County’s Pastoral Image

A red star painted on the asphalt marks the spot where 4-month-old Ivan Eduardo Perez died two weeks ago when his stroller was clipped by a car in Santa Paula.

Although Ventura County’s bucolic farms and sedate neighborhoods communicate an image of lazy suburban living, the infant’s death was just the latest example of the potential danger pedestrians face each day.

According to a report compiled by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, Ventura County ranks as the seventh most dangerous region in the state for pedestrians, not far behind traffic-choked Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The report is based on accident statistics recorded by the California Highway Patrol for 1996 and is weighted by population and the estimated number of regular walkers in each area as determined by the 1990 U.S. census.

According to CHP statistics, 10% of all traffic fatalities that year involved pedestrians.

Seven pedestrians were killed that year and another 282 were injured after being hit by cars. In addition, two bicyclists were killed in 1996 and 328 were injured.

“Pretty surprising, isn’t it?” said James Corless of the transportation project, a nonprofit traffic safety organization in Washington, D.C. “I think what this is telling us is that it’s time to start thinking about these issues and creating an environment that’s safer for those who choose to walk.”

No one is quite sure why Ventura County pedestrians fare so poorly, considering its relatively small population, but Corless said it’s not surprising considering the kind of thinking prevalent in community planning across Southern California.

“The streets weren’t designed for pedestrians, they were designed for cars,” he said. “And when there’s that kind of imbalance, you start to see those kinds of statistics.”

Since the country’s rapid push to construct roadways in the late 1950s, pedestrians and their needs have consistently taken second place to the need to increase the efficiency and capacity of roads, Corless said.

A sign of the status the humble pedestrian has in the minds of transportation planners can be found in the Highway Capacity Manual, or so-called “Highway Bible,” put out by the American Assn. of State Highway Transportation Officials, he said.

Pedestrians are referred to as “traffic-flow impediments,” Corless said.

“That kind of sums it up,” Corless said. “The knee-jerk reaction of many transportation planners when they’ve got some extra transportation money is to look for another road to widen, which only speeds up traffic and makes the environment worse for pedestrians.”

However, in communities from Seattle to Boston, planners have been taking a closer look at how to make their cities more friendly for those who opt to use their legs instead of their cars.

Their strategies involve more than just widening sidewalks and repainting crosswalks. Often they require completely rethinking the the design of the community.

“It’s not just widening a sidewalk or putting in a crossing sign,” said Lys Burden of Walkable Communities Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Florida that consults with cities on making their communities more livable. “It’s about rethinking how a city is planned, with more emphasis on providing a city center where residents can walk to run errands, eat and be entertained.”

That has benefits that go beyond reducing the number of pedestrian fatalities, she said. More pedestrians means more business downtown. Crime rates drop and social interaction increases--adding to an individual’s sense of place within a community, she said.

“People start to care more, and from that positive things follow,” she said.

Despite Ventura County’s ranking as one of the more dangerous areas in the state for pedestrians, efforts are being made to provide more amenities for walkers even here.

Ventura, for instance, began several years ago requiring developers to provide sidewalks within their projects.

A program also is underway to repaint crosswalks to make them more visible to drivers. A brochure provided free at City Hall offers information on the safest pedestrian routes within the city.

Simi Valley also plans to widen sidewalks along Los Angeles Avenue, as well as build a bike path in hopes of coaxing residents to use alternative means of commuting to work.

In addition, as part of its long-term congestion management program, the Ventura County Transportation Commission has stated as one of its objectives encouraging “policies that promote . . . bicycle travel, ride-sharing and walking.”

The commission is currently studying how to spend federal transportation funds, which after years of stagnation are flowing more freely because of the budget surplus in Washington. The commission is looking at a number of projects for pedestrians and bicyclists, including refurbishing the dilapidated bike path that runs through the county fairgrounds at Surfers Point and the addition of a better pedestrian walkway along California Street over the Ventura Freeway.

Though county transportation officials are paying more attention to the needs of pedestrians, Corless and other advocates said more needs to be done and now is the time to do it.

“We have seen some changes in the past few years, but we’re at a very critical period now where we’re flush with the transportation funds needed to make even more changes,” he said. “We have the opportunity to change the thinking that has persisted for so many years, and it’s time we seize that.”