Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition released its Dangerous by Design 2014 report this week, which provides data on pedestrian injuries and fatalities due to vehicles across the country. The study revealed that more pedestrians were killed by drivers in the US between 2003 and 2012 than by natural disasters. 16 times more than all natural disasters added together.

What about pedestrians injured by drivers? About one person every 80 minutes across the country.

According to the Dangerous by Design’s Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI), the 10 metropolitan areas in the nation where people walking are most likely to get killed by cars or other vehicles are newer low-density cities where people commute by foot less than 2%.

The top 5 most dangerous cities (and their respective PDIs) for pedestrians:
1. Orlando-Kissimmee, FL (244.28)
2. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (190.13)
3. Jacksonville, FL (182.71)
4. Miami-Fort Lauderdale- Pompano Beach, FL (145.33)
5. Memphis, TN (131.26)

Just for reference, the average PDI across the nation is 52.

So how about the metro areas with the best PDIs? Now we get the good news — Rochester, NY is #9 on that list! 33.97. Boston is the big winner.

Here are the top 10 safest cities for pedestrians:

1. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA (18.65)
2. Pittsburgh, PA (25.1)
3. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (26.81)
4. New York City-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (26.81)
5. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA (31.44)
6. Minneapolis-St.Paul-Bloomington, MN (32.15)
7. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA (32.19)
8. Chicago-Napierville-Joliet, IL (32.94)
9. Rochester, New York (33.97)
10. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH (34.37)

What do all these cities have in common? They have densely populated street grids, are older cities and have a commuter-by-foot population greater than 2%.

Now for the bad news:
Those scores aren’t great in the grand scheme of pedestrian safety. And our city ranked well only because the country as a whole is built around cars instead of people. Rochester ranks third in NY state for pedestrian fatalities. In the decade of the study, 47,000 pedestrians died and 670,000 were injured in vehicle accidents.

Do we still have work to do? Absolutely.

For all you naysayers out there who say cars rule the world and I should just get over my walkable self? Even Oklahoma City turned its car-central city around and made it more people-centric.

But even the little victories matter. So hooray for Rochester for making the top 10. And we walkers should be glad we don’t live in Florida.