Southern U.S. cities hazardous to pedestrians

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Florida's Orlando, Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville top a list of the 10 most dangerous U.S. cities for walking.

According to a study released on Monday by Transportation for America, in the last 15 years more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along a street, with children and the elderly making up a large proportion of the deaths.

The group's Pedestrian Danger Index, which computes a city's rate of pedestrian deaths relative to the average amount of walking residents do, found that cities with heavy driving are the most lethal.

Orlando had a pedestrian fatality rate of 2.9 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents, even though only 1.3 percent of residents walk to work, according to the group, which is a coalition of local, state and federal leaders that advocates environmentally sustainable transportation.

"In other words, the few people who do walk in Orlando face a relatively high risk of being killed in a traffic crash," the report said.

Tennessee's Memphis, Kentucky's Louisville, North Carolina's Raleigh, Texas' Houston, Alabama's Birmingham and Georgia's Atlanta round out the list of dangerous places.

No state spends more than 5 percent of its federal transportation funds on sidewalks, crosswalks, or footpaths, it said, despite a 30 percent increase in federal funding for pedestrian safety in the highway bill passed in 2005.

Rhode Island's Providence spends the most federal funds per person on pedestrian safety, $4.01, according to the study.

The U.S. Congress is currently debating a new surface transportation blueprint that will span six years and emphasizes making cities more livable by sponsoring bike and foot paths, along with public transportation.

The survey looked at 52 metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million in 2008.

Minnesota's Minneapolis is the safest city for walking, followed by Boston, Massachusetts, and New York.

New York has the highest absolute number of pedestrian deaths of any metropolitan area, the report said, but also the highest portion of commuters walking to work.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Kenneth Barry)