For five years in a row, Route 130 (Burlington Pike) in Burlington County has been designated by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign as the deadliest road in New Jersey for pedestrians. This year, Route 130 is tied with the Black Horse Pike in Atlantic County and Route 1 in Middlesex County. Each road had nine fatalities from 2009 to 2011.
“Year in and year out, the pedestrian-unfriendly US-130 continues to threaten the lives of Burlington residents,” Matthew Norris, South Jersey advocate for Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a regional transportation policy watchdog group, said in a press release. “It’s time to make this road safer.”
This analysis identifies the most dangerous roads in the tri-state region for pedestrian fatalities. Looking at federal data from 2009 to 2011, it includes factsheets and online maps that identify the locations of pedestrian fatalities and the age and gender of those killed. Counties in downstate New York and New Jersey that had 10 or more pedestrian fatalities over the three-year period were analyzed, as was the state of Connecticut.
In the three-year stretch, 440 pedestrians died on New Jersey roads, up slightly from the 436 killed from 2008 to 2010 in last year’s survey.
The next six deadliest roadways in the state — which each had eight deaths over the three-year period, included Route 30, also called the White Horse Pike, in Camden County; Route 9 in Middlesex County, Routes 1&9 in Union County, Route 46 in Morris County, Route 9 in Ocean County and JFK Boulevard, also known as Route 501, in Hudson County.
The report found that about 60 percent of pedestrian deaths in New Jersey were on such arterial, or main roads, as Route 130, Routes 1&9 and Route 1 — even though they only make up about 15 percent of roads in the region. TSTC pointed out that arterial roads are typically magnets for big box stores and other businesses, but improvements for pedestrians don’t always come with those new businesses.
In GMTMA’s region, 19 pedestrians were killed on Mercer County roads in the time period studied. US-206, Route 31, Route 653 and Route 129 had the highest number of pedestrian deaths. In Ocean County, 38 pedestrians were killed on Ocean County roads; Route 9, Route 37 and Route 88 had the highest number of pedestrian deaths over the period studied.
TSTC said they hoped that changes introduced by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, including a website for the complete streets program, which accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists, and a workshop focusing on pedestrian safety, would be reflected in future road surveys.
The full report, as well as county fact sheets and maps can be found at: http://tstc.org/reports/danger13/index.php.