Death by Walking

This week I was talking to my mom while walking home from campus, and as I was crossing over I-35, I said, Sorry, hold on, this car is trying to kill me.  It occurs to me that this kind of comment can really imply that I am taking my life into my hands every day I come home from school.  Actually, that was a very strange event.  Typically, when I'm walking, I need to remain vigilant to cars because when drivers see a person on foot heading toward an intersection (let alone already there), they will often slow down to let the pedestrian cross even if the driver clearly has the right-of-way. 

Robert recently sent me info on the most dangerous major metro areas (1 million+ population) for pedestrians.  The top five were (with "pedestrian danger index" in parentheses):

1) Orlando (255)
2) Tampa (213)
3) Jacksonville (178)
4) Miami (168)
5) Riverside, CA (139)

Nice job, Florida!  You dominate the country on pedestrian danger!  (If I were a more enterprising soul, I think this would make a nice bumper sticker sales opportunity.)

Other notable cities:

9) Houston (128)
10) Dallas-Fort Worth (119)
18) Austin (96)
24) San Antonio (88)

Way to go, Texas!

22) Oklahoma City (90)
29) Denver (74)
30) San Jose, CA (68)

And down in the bottom 10:

41) San Francisco (39)
48) Snow City (35)
50) New York City (30)

So by moving here from Austin, I've cut my pedestrian danger to a third of its previous level.  I mean, as if walking was ever really a viable option there.

Speaking of walking, I have not yet been able to visit this experience on anyone but Robert, but I look forward to this in the winters to come.  (This winter was so mild and relatively snow-less that I did not even get a chance to wear my awesome tall snow boots!)