Mapping Seattle's deadliest streets | Transportation

On the same day as a Dec. 16 (thankfully nonfatal) vehicle/pedestrian collision near the Pike Place Market, the Seattle Department of Transportation released a map created in October showing the location of every vehicle-caused pedestrian fatality in the city from 2005 to 2010.

According to the map, there were 43 fatal pedestrian collisions during that time span.

The highest concentration of pedestrian deaths are, unsurprisingly, found in areas with a higher concentration of pedestrians, such as Downtown Seattle and the University of Washington.

Compared to other neighborhoods, the Central District has an unfair proportion of pedestrian fatalities with eight occurring within its borders.

Only 11 of the 43 fatalities happened north of the Ship Canal and Lake Union. Apart from the UW, the greatest amount of those fatalities took place on Aurora or near Northgate Mall.

Perhaps interestingly, the only pedestrian fatality in Ballard did not occur on the highly travelled 15th Avenue Northwest but on the nearby 14th Avenue Northwest. The 14th Avenue Visioning Project and East Ballard Community Association have made improving safety on 14th Avenue a priority.

West Seattle's fatalities are spread over its large area, but two of them happened on 35th Avenue Southwest.

Though SDOT's map is useful for noting where these fatalities occurred, it does not take into account the number of pedestrians in a given neighborhood to create a true representation of pedestrian safety. So for the time being, the safest neighborhoods in Seattle appear to be the ones where there are few pedestrians in the first place: Magnolia, Madison Park, View Ridge, Wedgwood, Sand Point, Crown Hill, the Industrial District and Georgetown.