Crash report: pedestrians, cyclists concentrated on Milton, Reardon and Highway 89; ADOT review underway
Loading...
Summary
Transportation planner Carlton Johnson presented a 2024-data Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Report showing hotspots downtown and along Highway 89, noting that about one-third of roadway deaths are pedestrian fatalities and that many bike crashes involved drivers turning right; staff said ADOT is conducting a safety assessment and a federal grant would add streetlights.
Carlton Johnson, a transportation planner with the city, summarized the Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Report updated through 2024 and highlighted patterns officials said merit targeted safety work.
"One of the more interesting pieces within here is a third of all roadway deaths are pedestrian fatalities," Johnson said, presenting maps that show crash concentrations downtown (near Reardon and Milton) and along the Highway 89 corridor, where he said a high share of pedestrian crashes are serious or fatal.
Johnson told commissioners that a large share of bicycle crashes involved a driver making a right turn and that many pedestrian crashes occur at intersections rather than midblock. He also reported hit-and-run incidents accounted for 14% of pedestrian crashes and 11% of bicycle crashes, and that a disproportionate number of pedestrian crashes happen at night.
Commissioners and staff discussed parallel projects: Johnson said the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is conducting a corridor safety assessment for Highway 89 and a final report with recommendations is due soon, and staff noted an unrelated but ongoing signal-improvement project and a federal Highway Safety Improvement Program grant to add streetlights in the corridor.
A public commenter, Apoor Dre, said the report’s heat maps should be supplemented with contextual infrastructure and usage data — lane counts, intersection configuration and pedestrian volumes — so planners can more accurately target pedestrian-forward improvements. "If you can predict where people are and want to walk and make those intersections pedestrian forward, then you have less people getting turned right into hit," Dre said.
A commissioner asked whether the crash heat maps track incidents at bus stops; staff said that overlay analysis is possible but the current report is a standalone crash dataset and additional breakdowns (such as crashes tied to transit stops or hit-and-run by lighting) would require extra analysis. Johnson said the report links to the city's active transportation priorities and can inform project prioritization within that plan.
The commission did not vote on policy or funding in the meeting; the report was presented for information and follow-up analysis was offered.
