Local opinion: It is time to re-think our street design with safety in mind

We have an epidemic of road fatalities in Tucson. The preventable deaths of University of Arizona students Sophia Troetel, Josiah Santos and Katya Castillo Mendoza on Oct 30 on the edge of campus drive home this fact. Unfortunately, their deaths will not be the last ones on our roads in 2025.

According to the Dangerous by Design 2024 report, Tucson is the third-deadliest region for people walking in the U.S., with an average of 43 fatalities annually from 2018 to 2022. If we narrow the focus to just city limits, in 2023, there were 29 fatalities for people walking and seven fatalities for people on bikes. In 2024, 34 people died while walking, and seven people died while riding. As of Oct. 31, 27 people have died while walking, and two people have died while riding this year. The trends are not improving.

Many of these fatalities occur on roads with a posted speed limit of 30 mph or higher. Studies have demonstrated that if you are hit by a car going 20 mph, there is a 5% chance of dying, and this jumps to 45% at 30 mph and 85% at 40 mph. How we design our roads has a tremendous impact on driver behavior and safety outcomes. Wide roads (4-6 lanes) with wide lanes (10-12 feet) and long straightaways create a recipe for speeding, lane jockeying, and distracted driving. These “forgiving” design elements permit poor driver behavior that costs lives.

In the urban setting, we can have speed or safety, but not both. Do we want destinations like the UA, Tucson High, and Main Gate surrounded by 4- to 6-lane roads with 30+ mph speed limits? Or do we want these roads to reflect the environment, built to serve a walkable, pleasant area? Or put another way, is this a street — a place people want to arrive at — or a road — something used to get from A to B? According to Strong Towns, U.S. cities try to make most facilities do both, and in doing so, do neither aspect particularly well. This "stroad" design creates dangerous conditions for people inside and outside vehicles and can be an economic drag.

Imagine Euclid Avenue, from Grant to Broadway, with one lane in each direction, bus pullouts, protected bike lanes, trees in the median and over the sidewalks, raised intersections at First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Streets, etc., and a new 20 MPH speed limit. Such a design helps limit speeding and makes crossing the street much safer and easier. It would serve as a welcoming zone on our campus, at Tucson High, and for the surrounding neighborhoods, rather than the current barrier. In effect, this transformation turns it into a street — a place people want to be.

Analyzing how design impacts fatalities is a key component of Vision Zero, a strategy from Sweden that aims to eliminate road fatalities. And it works! Oslo, Helsinki and other cities have achieved zero road fatalities in recent years. There is no reason why it would not work here, but it does require shifting away from prioritizing drivers. In doing so, we make our city safer for everyone: both drivers and people walking or cycling.

We should not accept so many people dying on our roads. One road fatality is one too many. The tools are available for a safer city, and it is time we use them.