From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Pedestrian and cyclists deaths are up. How is the government responding? Description: About 20 pedestrians and cyclists die each day as a result of collisions with motor vehicles. That's more than 7,000 people each year, and it's a number that's increased by nearly 50% in the past decade. What is causing this upward trend and what is the Department of Transportation doing to help? We talk with GAO's Elizabeth Repko to learn more. Related GAO Work: GAO-21-405, Pedestrians and Cyclists: Better Information to States and Enhanced Performance Management Could Help DOT Improve Safety Released: May 2021 [Intro Music] [Elizabeth Repko:] DOT is taking steps, but because the number of fatalities has continued to increase, it really needs to do more. [Holly Hobbs:] Hi and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office--celebrating 100 years of fact-based, nonpartisan government oversight. I'm Holly Hobbs. About 20 pedestrians and cyclists die each day as a result of collisions with motor vehicles. That's more than 7,000 people each year, and it's a number that's increased by nearly 50% in the past decade. What is causing this upward trend and what is the Department of Transportation doing to help? Today we'll talk with Elizabeth "Biza" Repko, an expert on surface transportation and an acting director in our Physical Infrastructure Team, who has a new report out about pedestrian safety. Thank you for joining us Biza. [Elizabeth Repko:] Thanks for having me. [Holly Hobbs:] So Biza, can you paint us a picture of where these fatalities are occurring, and who are the people involved? [Elizabeth Repko:] So a majority of the fatalities occur in urban areas rather than rural areas. And that aligns where people live according to the census. But one other thing that's interesting about urban areas is that their roadways were built to prioritize motor vehicle traffic. And those types of roadways can be dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists because there is high speeding traffic and they don't have a lot of infrastructure design for pedestrians and cyclists. Most of the cyclists killed are male, about 20% of them are 50 to 59 years old. And racial minorities account for a disproportionately larger share of fatalities relative to their numbers in the population. [Holly Hobbs:] And do we know why these accidents are happening, and why they're happening more often? [Elizabeth Repko:] So we can't really point to one or two factors that just explain all of the increases, but we do know certain things are at play. One of them is the design of the roadway and the type of vehicles that we're driving. So for instance, you know, like a wide, straight road, that encourages high speeds and high speeds increase crash risk, and they increase crash severity. Similarly, like a larger vehicle, a truck or an SUV, that increases the likelihood of severe injuries and fatalities for pedestrians and for cyclists. But there's also some behavioral factors that play. One is simply prevalence of walking and cycling. Simply put, as we have more people walking and biking, there's really more potential exposure to crashing. Another factor is alcohol and drug impairment. We know from research that alcohol impaired driving increases crash risk. And there's also some other factors. Violation of traffic laws could be one. Pedestrian and cyclist visibility. Cyclists with helmet use is another. [Holly Hobbs:] So since a lot of these streets are state or city managed, what is the federal role in helping with pedestrian safety? [Elizabeth Repko:] State localities really are the ones who plan and implement these projects, and they do a lot of different things. S peed enforcement, changing roadways, and education campaigns. But there is a big federal role in supporting these efforts, and one key thing that the U.S. Department of Transportation does is provide states with billions in transportation funds every year. And those can include grants to the states to improve traffic safety behavior or funding for infrastructure projects like bike lanes or sidewalks. U.S. DOT also carries things like they collect and analyze data, they conduct research, and provide technical assistance to states to help them implement safety measures. [Holly Hobbs:] Did we find any gaps in these efforts? [Elizabeth Repko:] Yes, we did. We found two major weaknesses. First, the safety administration could do more to advance knowledge about how to improve safety. So the Safety Administration publishes a guide and that's to help states develop safety projects using federal funds. But only 3 of the activities in the guide are demonstrated to be effective at reducing fatalities and injury. Part of the problem here is that the Safety Administration hasn't really taken full advantage of the data that the states have on effectiveness of their activities, which really could help identify new or innovative strategies for the Department to pursue. Second, we also found that the Highway Administration and the Safety Administration are not measuring the effectiveness of their efforts at improving pedestrian and cyclist safety. So, while they're undertaking a lot of activities, they haven't established measures to really understand how well they're executing them and what results they are producing. [Music] [Holly Hobbs:] So it sounds like the federal government provides funding to states and localities to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety, but that the Department of Transportation doesn't analyze data that it or that the states collect to better understand whether efforts to improve safety are working. Biza, did we make any recommendations to help the federal government's efforts to improve pedestrian safety? [Elizabeth Repko:] We did. We're making 3 recommendations. So first we're recommending that the Safety Administration take steps to collect information on that range of activities implemented by the states; and then analyze that information to help advance what's known about how to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety. We're making similar recommendations, one to the Safety Administration, and one to the Highway Administration to develop performance measures and use information related to those measures to make any necessary changes to advance pedestrian and cyclist safety efforts. [Holly Hobbs:] And last question, what's the bottom line of this report? [Elizabeth Repko:] Well, the bottom line is that DOT is taking steps to reduce pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, but because the number of fatalities has continued to increase, it really needs to do more to advance knowledge in this area and measure its performance. And it can start by collecting and analyzing information on state effort and by better measuring the performance of its programs to make sure that they're taking the best actions possible to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety. [Holly Hobbs:] That was Elizabeth Repko talking about GAO's recent review of pedestrian and cyclist safety. Thank you for your time, Biza. [Elizabeth Repko:] Thanks, Holly. [Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the watchdog report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts and make sure you leave a rating and review to let others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at GAO.gov.