Like mentioned it's not just population growth. It's population growth alongside the fact that there's more pedestrians than ever. And unfortunately I missed probably also perhaps the single biggest factor: smart phones. Not only do you have more pedestrians than ever, they're also now going to be walking around with their faces shoved into a smart phone instead of paying attention to their surroundings.
That pedestrian deaths were higher at some point in the past is what's the real story here.
> That pedestrian deaths were higher at some point in the past is what's the real story here.
I deeply disagree with this take. I am living in a world in which boxes of metal fly around my unprotected flesh at high speeds, and "will I make it home safe today" is not only a dice roll for my life, but one in which the odds are getting worse by the day. One thing that keeps these numbers comparatively low is a pervasive culture of fear among people who walk, since they need to keep their head on a swivel and be prepared to save their lives at a moment's notice from someone else's negligent behavior in a motor vehicle. Another thing that keeps these numbers comparatively low is that many people in more walkable areas choose to walk less, or not at all, due to that danger. Another thing that keeps these numbers comparatively low is the proliferation of exurban developments in the past four decades in which walking anywhere is an absolute nonstarter.
It is interesting, perhaps, that pedestrian deaths used to be worse. It is not a consolation, nor is it the "real story."
I would say the "real story" is that pedestrian deaths are rebounding in the U.S. even though in European nations pedestrian deaths continued falling significantly after 2009.[1]
I can definitely see your perspective. It's hard for me to respond here because I tend to be obsessed with data, and data is surprisingly hard it is to find this topic. Even something as simple as a real car ownership rate over time, and not registrations / population (which is about as meaningful as guns / population in terms of ownership), is surprisingly hard to find.
We are in the middle of an alarming rebound that has significantly outpaced population growth.
[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/us/pedestrian-deaths.html