Is the Richmond region doing enough to protect pedestrians?

Within days, several were flattened by vehicles, many reduced to crumpled scraps of aluminum.

It was the best unintentional pedestrian safety campaign city officials could have hoped for.

“The mangled signs sparked a grassroots social media campaign as people posted photos and commentary about careless and reckless driving,” said Andy Boenau, the city’s transportation engineering program manager.

21 pedestrian deaths per year

In recent years, the Richmond metropolitan region, including Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield, have begun to rethink how they plan for future developments. They are putting pedestrians at the forefront.

The shift comes after localities across the nation reported an uptick in pedestrian-related deaths, after a brief drop during the pandemic.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, pedestrian deaths account for 18% of all crash fatalities. In 2022, a total of 7,533 pedestrians died in the U.S. — a figure unseen since 1982.

Locally, in the past eight years, 166 pedestrians have been killed traversing roads in Richmond and Henrico and Chesterfield counties. According to the state Department of Transportation, nearly 1,900 crashes in the region involved pedestrians.

It is a trend that has remained consistent with the three localities averaging a combined 235 pedestrian crashes and 21 pedestrian deaths per year.

While most agree that no one should be at risk while walking city and state roads, the transportation infrastructure needed to meet the needs of pedestrians and cyclists can be costly and often take years to complete.

It can take even longer to start seeing positive results, said Jessica Cowardin, a spokesperson with the Virginia Department of Transportation.

In recent years, there has been a massive push on the federal, state and local levels, largely the result of citizens demanding roadways that better serve all forms of transportation.

Through various infrastructure bills, states and localities are seeing record funding funneled into their coffers to make these improvements.

“Steady funding has been key in making pedestrian projects a reality,” Cowardin said.

Density drives demand

In order to prevent pedestrian-related fatalities, there has to be an understanding of why these incidents happen, said Richard Hankins, executive director of Partnership for Smarter Growth, an organization that advocates for intentional, equitable street design.

Usually, these accidents aren’t random. They are concentrated along heavily traveled roads that lack sidewalks and crosswalks. Hankins said it’s because most modern streets were designed to accommodate cars, not people.

While pedestrian safety is a regional problem, no two localities are the same.

In Richmond, there are portions, primarily in the city center and its adjoining neighborhoods, designed specifically with foot traffic in mind.

In Jackson Ward, Church Hill and The Fan, the streets were designed long before the advent of cars. They feature complete sidewalks, narrower streets — which deter speeding — and fewer driveways.

Likewise, these areas are more densely populated with houses and businesses. Density plays a crucial part in demand for more pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. More people in these neighborhoods opt to walk, bike or take public transit.

Also, after losing population in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, Richmond saw it’s population start to grow again in the 2000s.

“For (the younger) generations, urbanism, walkable cities, crossing the street without feeling like you’re going to die, being able to go to a coffee shop and meet your friends, these are all important factors for them,” Hankins said.

Vision Zero leading plan for pedestrian safety

The Richmond City Council adopted a Vision Zero plan in 2018. The plan included a priority list of projects to be funded and completed by 2030.

As part of the plan, a $48 million competitive federal grant was used to pay for various projects like improvements to crosswalks, right-of-ways, intersections and medians.

Vision Zero, a concept that first cropped up in Sweden in the 1990s, is a multidisciplinary strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.

“Richmond has great bones,” Hankins said. “The reason it is so easy to get around and travel is so much of the city was designed for people. Places like Baltimore, Washington D.C., Boston, New York, these cities are naturally walkable because they weren’t designed to go any faster than a stagecoach.”

Durham, North Carolina — which is comparable to Richmond in history, population and design — has put together its own Vision Zero plan.

Durham, which also has several universities and colleges, ranks pretty high in terms of pedestrian safety with a 1.7 pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 residents. By comparison, Richmond’s pedestrian fatality rate is 2.26 per 100,000 residents, according to Smart Growth America.

Durham began working on its Vision Zero plan in 2017, but it has yet to approve a plan. Despite that, Lauren Grove, Durham’s Vision Zero coordinator, says they have already seen successes with various projects including curb extensions, new paint and flex posts to calm speeds and narrower roadways.

Also, the city changed to timing of crosswalks. Now, pedestrians get a head start before driving motorists.

Grove hopes when their Vision Zero plan is approved it will help even more, because there’s still more work to do.

“We are reeling with very similar scenarios that other cities are seeing,” Grove said. “The city is in this space where we’re coming up with an action plan and trying to gather resources to say, here’s where we want to focus, because, there’s a lot of areas that need attention to make them safer, and cities have limited resources.”

Richmond’s Vision Zero plan

In Richmond, the city’s own Vision Zero plan has begun to take shape. They are building out crosswalks with “bump-outs,” or sidewalk extensions, that help calm traffic and create additional space for pedestrians.

Additionally, Richmond’s Department of Public Works has begun regular trimming trees and clearing foliage that may block signs. The city has also installed additional street lights and traffic signals. They’ve switched out dated corner post traffic signals, replacing them with hanging signals. Although some still remain, like those along Monument Avenue.

The city has placed numerous speed bumps on roadways with high concentrations of pedestrians like VCU’s campus, as well as areas that see chronic speeding. One of its latest additions is on the Richmond-Henrico Turnpike, which adjoins a pedestrian trail.

“I think it takes a really big change in focus and priorities that we haven’t always seen,” Hankins said.

Chesterfield’s 50 ongoing projects

The further out from the city center, the worse the conditions are for pedestrians.

Areas like the East End, North Side and South Side were developed later in the city’s history and feature car-centric designs specifically for commuter traffic.

While these roadways emphasize quickly moving folks in and out of the city, there was little attention paid to potential pedestrians.

Not surprisingly, these are the areas of the city that see the highest concentration of pedestrian-related deaths. And this extends out to the suburbs of Chesterfield and Henrico.

“A lot of our post-war neighborhoods and a lot of the counties, those were designed for the vehicle,” Hankins added. “A lot of (these areas) just don’t have sidewalks because it was cheaper to develop an auto-oriented subdivision.”

Chesterfield County is crisscrossed by two interstates and several highways. Many are major arteries connecting to the region’s busiest streets. Thousands of motorists come and go every day.

While convenient for drivers, these roads can be deadly for people on foot. In the past eight years, nearly 50 people died traversing county roads, according to Virginia Department of Transportation data.

The county is working to address pedestrian and bike safety with 50 ongoing improvement projects, at an estimated $90 million. These projects are concentrated primarily on the county’s major thoroughfares like Routes 1, 60 and 360.

County spokesperson J. Elias O’Neal said the county has been intentional when planning future developments — taking into account various factors like speed, volume, demographics and commute times.

“Infrastructure projects are expensive and take years to complete,” O’Neil said. “Many people need alternatives to driving to get to destinations.”

This intentionality is most evident with projects near schools, including a crosswalk installation on Bailey Bridge Road leading to Crenshaw Elementary School, the addition of sidewalks next to Evergreen Elementary School and the construction of a walking and biking path near Providence Middle School.

The Route 1 corridor in Chesterfield has been one of the region’s deadliest roads for walkers and bikers. Four people have been killed by cars since September.

Chesterfield adopted a plan to redevelop the area in 2018 that includes pedestrian infrastructure. It says that area is the most demographically diverse and “least mobile” in the entire county. And more walkers and bikers could come to the area as more apartment complex developments are expected in the coming years.

The plan recommends better pedestrian and biking connectivity between the neighborhoods. A shared-use path is recommended along Route 1 from Dundas Road through the Bensley Neighborhood. North of that, it recommends sidewalks along Route 1.

Henrico spends $170 million

North of the river, it’s the same sad story. Henrico County has mourned the deaths of 10 pedestrians this year.

A teacher at Brookland Middle School was hit and killed last month in a parking lot on W. Broad Street, one of its deadliest corridors. A week prior, 15-year-old Hermitage High School student Nathaniel Clark was hit and killed while crossing Staples Mill Road. He was walking home after an evening shift at Firehouse Subs.

“These losses are heartbreaking for their family and friends and also for our entire community,” said John Vithoulkas, Henrico County manager. “One death is too many.”

These tragedies, like many others in recent years, have helped lead to a $170 million investment in 57 active pedestrian improvement projects.

This includes the installation of 250 streetlights and traffic signals, to improve visibility and create additional crosswalks. Also, in the last five years, Henrico County has put in 75 miles of sidewalks with plans to add more in the upcoming years.

With the Virginia Department of Transportation reporting that 90% of pedestrian fatalities occur after sundown, county officials are hopeful the additional lighting will help improve visibility.

“This is what the county is doing but quite frankly, we need the community’s help,” Vithoulkas said. “Our residents, pedestrians and drivers have a responsibility as well.”

Education is top priority

Michael Sawyer, a traffic engineer with Richmond’s Department of Public Works, shares similar sentiments. If redesigning roadways and building out infrastructure are the most important factors in driving change, education trails close behind.

When Richmond began putting crosswalk signs up, it was in part to give motorists fair warning to slow down and stop for pedestrians after the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation criminalizing drivers who failed to give them the right-of-way.

It was also a part of an intentional plan to spread awareness of the dangers pedestrians face and educate motorists on the importance of slowing down and being aware of their surroundings.

Each time a new sign was installed and then inevitably mowed down by a motorist, residents took to social media – almost daily – to lament their demise, chastise distracted drivers and call for more safety measures.

“That picture sums up pretty well the attitude towards pedestrians in the city,” one Reddit user commented on a post featuring a photograph of a broken crosswalk sign.

“Do people really drive mindlessly without being alert at what is around them?” another Reddit user commented.

Sawyer said the other piece of the puzzle lies with the public.

People are almost always careful when climbing onto a step ladder, Sawyer said. The impact from a fall off a step ladder is comparable to crashing a vehicle at 15 mph.

Yet, Sawyer said, most people are more cautious climbing step ladders than when they are getting behind the wheel of their car.

Simply put, motorists need to do their part and remain diligent when traversing the city’s streets.

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney summed up pretty succinctly at a September press conference when talking about the number of pedestrian deaths in the city.

“It’s pretty simple, but I’ll repeat it until I’m blue in the face,” Stoney said. “We have to slow down.

“All of us. We have to slow down.”