courtesy of Emily Gersema – Sept. 13, 2011
The Arizona Republic
[Editors Note: LightRailConnect.com urges every rider to be cautious and don’t run for trains. The next one is only about 10 minutes away.]
New brochures and signs on light-rail platforms and inside trains are urging riders not to run for the train in an educational effort by Metro light rail that began last month.
Metro light-rail spokeswoman Hillary Foose said the agency launches a safety campaign every year.
“While we still continue to talk about driver safety, we felt it was necessary to also think about pedestrian and passenger safety,” Foose said. “The idea behind it was to curb the really dangerous jaywalking.”
Posters and brochures say: “Dying to get there? Don’t run for the train. Your life depends on it.”
The light rail spans 19 miles across Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa, and it is has been in operation since 2008. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, there were two pedestrian-involved incidents, according to Metro.
By coincidence, Metro light rail’s safety campaign started last month after a national group, Transportation for America, ranked the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metropolitan area as the eighth-deadliest area for pedestrians out of 52 metropolitan areas in a nine-year period.
The group’s report tried to account for all pedestrian deaths involving transportation from 2000 to 2009, but it did not break down incidents according to the type of transportation they involved.
Phoenix officials have disagreed with the count, but the report said the Phoenix metro area had a rate of 2.3 deaths per 100,000 people, with 867 pedestrian fatalities in nine years
Orlando-Kissimmee in Florida had the highest rate of pedestrian deaths of the metro areas: about 3 deaths per 100,000 people, with a total of 557 deaths in nine years. The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metropolitan area had the lowest rate, about 1.1 deaths per 100,000 people in nine years with a total of 483 pedestrian deaths.
Foose said the agency has not seen an unusual uptick in injuries or fatalities relating to pedestrians who are using the light rail.
Metro’s educational campaign costs $8,200.