It's National Walking Day 2021!

Each year on the first Wednesday in April, traffic safety professionals and advocates celebrate National Walking Day and the many benefits of walking, and the importance of creating streets that are safe for walking for all people, ages and abilities. Explore our selection of pedestrian safety resources, tools, and ways to get involved to help improve walking in your community!

Pedestrians in crosswalk on Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, CA.

How Safe is Walking in the U.S.?

• Pedestrian Safety (NHTSA): This website from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provides on overview of pedestrian safety in the U.S., and provides safety resources.
• Pedestrian Safety (OTS): This webpage from the California Office of Traffic Safety provides an overvies of pedestrian safety in California and provides safety resources.
• Dangerous By Design 2021 (Smart Growth America): The deadliest metro areas and states for people walking have been identified in Smart Growth America's latest report, Dangerous by Design 2021. The number of people struck and killed while walking has gone up 45 percent in a decade, and people of color, older adults, and people walking in low-income neighborhoods were killed at significantly higher rates.
• Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2020 Preliminary Data (GHSA): The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) latest report on pedestrian safety in the U.S. offers the first comprehensive look at state and national trends in pedestrian deaths for January-June, 2020. The report projects the U.S. pedestrian fatality rate per billion vehicle miles traveled (VMT) jumped to 2.2 deaths for the first six months of 2020 compared to 1.8 during the same period in 2019 – a 20% increase.

Tips and Tools for Improving Walking Safety

• Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS): Access a suite of tools that provide quick, easy and free access to California crash data that has been geo-coded to make it easy to map out crashes and even view the locations in Google Street View.
• Crash Data (CATSIP): Accessing crash data plays an important role in assessing the safety needs and concerns for people walking in our communities. Explore the California crash data and statistics, including pedestrian counts, pedestrian collision data by county, and other crash data tools and resources.
• Street Story: Learn more about this online community engagement tool that allows residents, community groups and agencies to collect information about transportation collisions, near-misses, general hazards and safe locations to travel.
• Complete Streets Safety Assessment (CSSA) Program: SafeTREC is now offering free Complete Streets Safety Assessments (CSSA) to California communities, including cities, counties, and school campuses with a population of over 2,500 people. CSSAs are comprehensive transportation safety assessments that focus on pedestrian and bicycle safety. They help local agencies identify and implement traffic safety solutions that lead to improved safety for all users of California’s roadways.
• Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training (CPBST) Program: Applications are being accepted for the 2021 CPBST Program, which works with local neighborhood residents and health, transportation and safety advocates to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety through engaging local stakeholders, providing information and data, supporting community empowerment, and strengthening collaboration with local officials and agency staff.
• CPBST Interactive Map: Explore this online map of summary reports from the CPBST program to access workshop proceedings in communities throughout California, including ideas identified during the process and recommendations for pedestrian/bicycle safety projects, policies, and programs. 
• GoSafely California: Explore the pedestrian safety resources and educational materials from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS).

Get Involved

• Explore our inventory of Advocacy Groups at the national, state, county and local level working to improve pedestrian safety.
• View the CATSIP calendar for upcoming active transportation safety conferences, trainings, safety campaigns, and webinars. Interested in seeing what's happening during National Walking Day 2021? Read our latest blog.