According to the 2017 National Household Travel Survey, Americans over 75 walk for about 9.5 percent of all trips. This is slightly lower than the national average of 10.5 percent. But older adults are disproportionately represented in pedestrian fatalities and injuries. According to Smart Growth America's Dangerous By Design 2019, the relative pedestrian danger for older adults age 50 and above is more than a third higher than it is for the general population, and for people age 75 and up it is almost twice as high.

When an older person walking is hit, they are far more likely to be hurt. According to AAA, the average risk of severe injury or death for a 70-year old pedestrian struck by a car traveling at 25 mph is similar to the risk for a 30-year-old pedestrian struck at 35 mph. These charts from AAA's study of vulnerable road users make the difference clear:

It's for this reason that Strong Towns has a simple mantra when it comes to safety on our streets:

The only safe travel speed on an urban street, where people may be out and about walking, is one slow enough that severe injuries will be rare and deaths nonexistent, even if the driver or pedestrian makes a mistake. An error in judgment on a walk to the store should not cost anyone their life.

For seniors, it's doubly important that #SlowTheCars be our focus, because traffic control devices are often designed with younger people in mind and fail to make walking a safe activity. As Dangerous By Design observes:

Compared to younger people who are struck and killed by drivers while walking, older adults killed while walking are more often at an intersection or within a crosswalk. Part of the reason for this is because even when transportation planners provide people with marked places to cross the street, the amount of time provided to rush all the way across often isn’t adequate, especially for older adults and people living with disabilities.

In New York City, where walking is a primary means of transportation, seniors make up 12 percent of the population but 38 percent of the pedestrian fatalities. This has prompted the city to establish a Safe Streets for Seniors program. It is not enough for walking to be a theoretical option. We need to obsess over making it a practical, safe one.

What’s more, if we do, we will find that we make our cities more prosperous places. Slow, walkable streets are more financially productive, supporting the success of local businesses and generating more concentrated value from the same amount of land. Cities and towns made up of connected, walkable destinations foster social interaction and the kind of connection that creates intangible value as well.