View Atlantic County Pedestrian Fatalities, 2009-2011 in a larger map

ABSECON – A pedestrian safety advocacy group has just released a report that contains information that’s all too familiar for residents of Absecon and Pleasantville.

It’s deadly dangerous to walk along the Black Horse Pike and almost as risky to venture across the White Horse Pike in Absecon, according to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

A Feb. 25 report issued by the organization found that 440 pedestrians were killed on New Jersey roads between 2009 and 2001, including 27 in Atlantic County.

However, the Black Horse Pike, which stretches the length of the county, proved to be among the deadliest highways in the state for pedestrians.

During the three-year span, nine pedestrians were killed along the Black Horse Pike, including four in 2009, the report said.

For the first time, the Black Horse Pike was ranked among the top-three deadliest roadways, tied for No. 1 with US-130 in Burlington County and Route 1 in Middlesex County, according to the report.

Three people were killed along the White Horse Pike between 2009 and 2012, the report said.

“Year in and year out, the pedestrian-unfriendly US-130 continues to threaten the lives of Burlington residents; it’s time to make this road safer,” said Mathew Norris, the Campaign’s South Jersey advocate.

The analysis found that arterial roads – roads with two or more lanes in each direction that are designed to accommodate vehicle speeds of 40 mph or higher – are the most deadly for pedestrians, with almost 60 percent of pedestrian deaths in Connecticut, New Jersey and downstate New York occurring on this type of road.

“Arterials were traditionally designed to move vehicles from one destination to the next without regard for other road users like pedestrians and bicyclists. We continue to see that designing roads like this results in needless loss of life,” said Renata Silberblatt, report author and staff analyst with the campaign.

Unfortunately, as many people turned to eco-friendly forms of transportation to save money and cut down on fuel expenses, pedestrian cycling deaths rose, the report said.

“Bicyclists and pedestrians make up nearly a quarter of the traffic deaths in New Jersey. The state should invest a fair amount of its federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funds to make it safer to walk or bike. Though bicycle and pedestrian safety projects are eligible for funding, HSIP has been largely overlooked as a resource,” said John Boyle, research director at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

The campaign offered insight for the types of improvements New Jersey should make.

“Our approach in New Jersey needs to be three-pronged: re-design and rebuild of these arterial roads using complete streets concepts, legislation and enforcement to protect vulnerable road users, and education that emphasizes the value of these changes,” said Cyndi Steiner, executive director of the New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition. “Our approach should ultimately strive to bring about a change in culture; the concept that roads have multiple types of users is a significant shift in mindset among most New Jersey residents. Only with this shift in culture will we begin to see reductions in pedestrian fatality and injury rates.”

Seemingly men and women off all ages fell victim to crossing or walking along Atlantic County highways during the three-year-period, according to the report.

An 82-year-old female died April 16 on New Jersey Avenue in Absecon, according to a map provided by the report. An 11-year-old boy was killed on Nov. 6, 2011 on Collins Road in Galloway, also.

A 15-year-old boy was killed Aug. 6, 2010 as we walked on Route 50 in Hamilton Township, according to the report.

The report used the most up-to-date data available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System to determine which routes within each county had the highest number of pedestrian fatalities from 2009 to 2011.

The full report along with county fact sheets and maps can be found at http://tstc.org/reports/danger13/index.php