贝桑-格里戈走进了街道中央。几分钟后，一辆大型SUV撞上了她，导致她死亡。
Bessan-Gligo stepped into the middle of the street. Moments later, a large SUV hit and killed her. American roads are becoming deadlier for walkers.
美国道路对行人的危害正在加剧：联邦数据显示，2009年至2024年间，美国全国的行人死亡人数增加了72%；而根据联合国的数据，在同一时期，大多数其他发达国家的行人死亡人数却有所下降。在美国，道路安全状况显得格外糟糕。在某些路段上，行人被汽车撞伤的事件屡见不鲜。这类道路（即所谓的“Union Avenue”）正在美国各地不断蔓延。
Between 2009 and 2024, pedestrian deaths increased 72% across the U.S., federal data show. Over the same period, such deaths declined in most other developed nations, according to United Nations data. In road safety, the U.S. is an outlier. Pedestrian deaths are rising on certain roadways. Increasingly, people are hit by cars on roads designed like Union Avenue—all while this type of roadway continues to spread across the country. Union Avenue is what urbanists call a “stroad,” a fusion of “street” and “road.”
城市规划专家将这类道路称为“Stroad”——这是一种介于“街道”和“公路”之间的特殊类型：普通的街道主要用于连接商业场所和居民区，而公路则用于高速运输人群；而“Stroad”则试图同时承担这两种功能。查尔斯·马龙（Charles Marohn）是最早提出这一概念的工程师。在孟菲斯，Union Avenue是商业活动的中心，两旁遍布杂货店、快餐店和加油站；这条六车道的公路每天有约3万辆汽车经过。
A street serves as a location for destinations like businesses and homes, while a road transports people at high speeds between destinations. A “stroad” tries to do both tasks at once, said Charles Marohn, the engineer widely credited with coining the term. In Memphis, Union Avenue is a center of commercial activity, lined with grocery stores, fast-food restaurants and gas stations. It is also a six-lane highway that carries some 30,000 cars a day. The road bisected Bessan-Gligo’s life.
贝桑-格里戈就读的中央高中距离Union Avenue只有几个街区之遥。她的历史老师说，她在课堂上非常认真，不过她最热衷的是学校的乐队——南方的中学乐队向来以出色的表现而自豪，而中央高中的乐队更是全国顶尖的之一；贝桑-格里戈在乐队中担任钹手。
The school she attended, Central High School, was a few blocks away from Union Avenue. In class, she was an attentive student, her history teacher said—though she was most passionate about the school’s band. High-school bands are a matter of pride across the South, and Central’s band is among the best in the nation. Bessan-Gligo played the cymbals.
乐队练习结束后，她会在Union Avenue旁的一家三明治店开始工作，之后再穿过这条公路回家。她的朋友说，贝桑-格里戈几乎总是步行回家（因为她还没有驾照）。像Union Avenue这样的商业街道上的商店和餐馆，通常雇佣的是那些买不起汽车的人；然而，这些道路的设计初衷根本不是为了行人的安全。
After band practice, she would begin her shift at a sandwich shop beside Union Avenue. Then she would cross it to get home. Bessan-Gligo almost always walked, a friend said; she didn’t have her driver’s license yet. The stores and restaurants one might find on stroads like Union Avenue, such as the sandwich shop where Bessan-Gligo worked, employ workers who often cannot afford a car. But stroads aren’t designed for pedestrians.
“当工人们试图步行时，他们面对的其实是一个专为车辆设计的道路环境，”非营利组织 Smart Growth America 的城市规划总监海蒂·西蒙（Heidi Simon）说道。“联合大道（Union Avenue）的人行道非常狭窄，根本没有明显的过街设施；许多交叉路口之间的距离都在半英里左右。对于以每小时 40 英里速度行驶的车辆来说，半英里的距离只需要大约 45 秒时间；但对步行者来说，尤其是在长时间工作后，这段距离简直像永恒一般漫长。”
When workers attempt to walk, they encounter a landscape built for vehicles, said Heidi Simon, a director of urban-planning at nonprofit Smart Growth America. Sidewalks on Union Avenue are narrow. There is no obvious place to cross the street; many intersections are located about a half-mile apart. For a driver going 40 miles an hour, a half-mile takes about 45 seconds. By foot, after a long shift, such a distance can feel like an eternity.
她的朋友说，贝桑-格利戈（Bessan-Gligo）经常在联合大道的中间过马路，她已经习惯了这种行为，因此不再觉得这有什么危险。
Bessan-Gligo frequently crossed in the middle of Union Avenue, her friend said. She had done it so often that it no longer felt dangerous.
事实上，数据显示，这种过马路方式尤其危险：行人在夜间、在人行道之外过马路时最容易遭到汽车的撞击。Fehr & Peers 交通咨询公司的国家安全实践研究负责人丽贝卡·桑德斯（Rebecca Sanders）指出：“在道路的中间过马路往往会令司机措手不及。”她解释说，司机通常可以不关注道路两旁的状况就继续驾驶；宽阔、笔直且多车道的道路设计本身就鼓励人们加速行驶，司机可能会在不知不觉中超过法定速度限制。
In reality, this kind of crossing is especially deadly, data show. Pedestrians are most likely to be killed by cars when they cross roads “midblock”—outside of crosswalks—at night. Midblock crossings often surprise drivers, said Rebecca Sanders, national safety practice research lead at Fehr & Peers, a transportation consulting firm. Drivers can usually guide their cars down a stroad without paying attention to their periphery, she said. The design of a stroad—wide, straight, multiple lanes—facilitates speed above all else. Drivers might find themselves going faster, well past the legal limit, without realizing it.
此外，桑德斯还提到，夜间这些道路的照明条件往往很差：“要照亮一条六车道宽的道路，需要大量的照明设施。等到司机注意到路上有行人时，往往已经为时已晚。”
Meanwhile, stroads are often poorly lit at night, Sanders added. “You’d need a lot of light to light the width of a roadway that is six lanes across,” she said. By the time drivers notice a pedestrian in the road, it is often too late.
然而，美国仍在继续修建这样的道路，新墨西哥大学（University of New Mexico）的副教授、行人及自行车安全中心主任尼古拉斯·费伦查克（Nicholas Ferenchak）表示：“当你在距离人们工作地点 15 英里的地方建造 200 栋房屋时，你就不得不修建宽阔的道路，以便人们能够快速驾驶。”他说，在战后时期，这种道路设计成为了美国道路建设的标准模式；城市规划者认为大多数人都有汽车，因此城市区域不断向外扩张。
Yet the U.S. keeps building stroads, said Nicholas Ferenchak, an associate professor at the University of New Mexico and the director of the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety. “When you plop 200 houses down 15 miles from the place where people have to work, you have to build big roads where they can drive fast,” Ferenchak said. Stroads became a staple of American road design in the postwar era, he said. Urban planners assumed most people had cars, so metropolitan areas sprawled.
地方政府和州政府修建了宽阔的多车道道路，以便人们能够从郊区的家中前往经济中心。这一趋势至今仍在延续，尤其是在“阳光地带”（Sunbelt）地区——该地区如今已成为美国对行人来说最危险的地区。根据田纳西州交通部门2022年发布的报告，像联合大道（Union Avenue）这样的城市道路（限速为每小时35英里或更高）的致命性是限速较低的城市道路的三倍。
Local and state governments built wide, multilane roads to allow people to travel to economic centers from their homes in suburbs. The trend continues today, particularly in the Sunbelt, now the most dangerous region of the country for pedestrians. Roads like Union Avenue—urban roads with speed limits of 35 mph or above—are now three times as deadly as other urban roads with lower speed limits, according to a 2022 Tennessee Department of Transportation report analyzing pedestrian fatalities in the state.
许多这样的道路同时也是州级高速公路。美国“智能增长组织”（Smart Growth America）的一项研究发现，2024年，57%的道路死亡事故发生在州属道路上。威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校城市规划系的罗伯特·施耐德（Robert Schneider）指出，还有其他因素加剧了这些道路的安全风险：许多低收入美国人需要上夜班，导致驾驶员在夜间视线受阻；同时，近年来美国人更倾向于驾驶大型车辆，而这些车辆对行人的撞击力更大。
Many stroads are also state highways, like Union Avenue. A recent study from Smart Growth America found that in 2024, 57% of all roadway fatalities occurred on state-owned roads. Other factors amplify stroads’ risks, said Robert Schneider, co-chair of the department of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Many low-income Americans now work shifts that end late at night, when drivers find it difficult to see, he said. At the same time, Americans have gravitated in recent years toward larger vehicles, which hit pedestrians with greater force.
施耐德表示，虽然大型、重型车辆通常对车内乘客来说更安全，但行人死亡人数却一直在增加。事实上，近年来因车祸死亡的美国人总数反而有所下降。导致贝桑-格利戈（Bessan-Gligo）死亡的车辆是一辆GMC Yukon越野车，其重量超过5500磅；警方报告称，这辆车在与她的身体发生碰撞后几乎没有受到损坏，而车内的三名青少年男孩则毫发无伤地走出了事故现场。
Ironically, larger, heavier vehicles are often safer for the occupants of cars, Schneider said. At the same time pedestrian deaths have swelled, the number of Americans dying in car accidents has declined. The car that killed Bessan-Gligo was a GMC Yukon, an SUV that weighs more than 5½ thousand pounds. The car was barely damaged by the collision with her body, a police report noted. The occupants of the car—three teenage boys—walked away from the crash uninjured.
美国最危险的路段根据美国汽车协会（AAA）的数据，当行人被一辆以每小时32英里（略低于联合大道的限速）行驶的车辆迎面撞击时，其死亡几率约为25%；如果车速增加到每小时42英里，行人的死亡几率则会翻倍。孟菲斯市的道路安全倡导者凯尔西·赫斯（Kelsey Huse）表示：“在联合大道上行走，感觉就像随时都可能遭遇致命危险。”
Deadliest in AmericaA pedestrian hit head-on by a car going 32 miles an hour—a little less than the speed limit on Union Avenue—has about a 25% chance of death, according to AAA data. If that car’s speed increases to 42 miles an hour, AAA says, the pedestrian is twice as likely to die. Drivers often speed on Union Avenue, said Kelsey Huse, an advocate for road safety in Memphis.“To walk on Union Avenue feels like you’re about to be killed,” she said.
“你得留意人们进出商铺。如果你必须过马路，祝你能找到地方过，因为人行横道之间隔得太远了。”根据“智慧增长美国”对截至2024年（可获得的最新数据）的数据所作的分析，孟菲斯都会区按人均计算是全美行人死亡最严重的地区。《华尔街日报》的一项分析发现，在孟菲斯，行人死亡集中在“街道高速公路”（stroads）上。
“You have to navigate people turning in and out of businesses. If you have to cross the street, good luck finding a place to do that because the crosswalks are so far apart.”The Memphis metro area ranks as the deadliest in the U.S. for walkers per capita, according to a Smart Growth America analysis of data through 2024, the most recent available. In Memphis, pedestrian deaths are concentrated on stroads, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.
这类道路通常宽度超过60英尺，只占该市道路的一小部分。但《华尔街日报》发现，78%的行人死亡发生在具有此类宽度的道路上。根据州和联邦数据，自2020年以来，在联合大道上被汽车撞死的15人中，贝桑-格利戈是其中之一。州数据显示，同期在包括孟菲斯在内的谢尔比县，至少有402名行人被汽车撞死。一些城市的官员正试图通过重新设计道路来减少行人死亡。
Stroads, which are generally more than 60 feet wide, account for only a small percentage of the city’s roads. But 78% of pedestrian fatalities happen on roads with such widths, the Journal found. Bessan-Gligo was one of 15 people killed by a car along Union Avenue since 2020, according to state and federal data. Over the same period, state data show at least 402 pedestrians have been killed by cars in Shelby County, which includes Memphis. Officials in some cities are trying to reduce pedestrian deaths by redesigning roadways.
密尔沃基市城市工程师凯文·穆斯说，近年来，密尔沃基开始通过收窄道路、增加过街点和抬高人行道来改造一些危险道路。他说，这些改变迫使汽车遵守限速并注意行人。“凡是我们看到重新设计的地方，我们都能看到死亡人数减少或完全消除，”密尔沃基“零死亡愿景”项目协调员杰西卡·温伯格说。该项目是一项交通安全计划。
In recent years, Milwaukee started to change some dangerous roads by narrowing roadways, adding more crossing points and raising sidewalks, said Kevin Muhs, Milwaukee’s city engineer. These changes compel cars to follow speed limits and pay attention to pedestrians, he said.“Wherever we see a redesign, we see reduction or total elimination of fatalities,” said Jessica Wineberg, coordinator of Milwaukee’s Vision Zero program, a traffic-safety plan.
她说，2024年至2025年间，密尔沃基的行人死亡人数下降了19%。安全十字路口孟菲斯的联合大道不会很快重新设计。田纳西州交通部地方项目和社区投资主任史蒂夫·艾伦说，在贝桑-格利戈死后，田纳西州官员开始考虑让这条道路更安全的办法。联合大道归田纳西州所有。艾伦说，该州无法在联合大道上增加更多人行横道、减少车道数量或降低限速，所有这些都需要时间和金钱。
Between 2024 and 2025, pedestrian deaths in Milwaukee decreased 19%, she said. Safety crossroadsUnion Avenue in Memphis won’t be redesigned any time soon. After Bessan-Gligo’s death, Tennessee officials started thinking about ways to make the road safer, said Steve Allen, the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s director of local programs and community investments. The state of Tennessee owns Union Avenue. The state can’t add more crosswalks, reduce the number of lanes or lower the speed limit on Union Avenue, all of which would take time and money, Allen said.
相反，官员们计划鼓励行人使用现有的人行道，措施包括改善照明，以及重新粉刷距离贝桑-格利戈工作地点最近的人行横道。艾伦将行人安全的责任归咎于行人。“行人总以为自己任何时候都拥有优先通行权，”他说，“但如果你不注意，那也无济于事。当你走上那样的道路时，你就承担起了那份责任。”美国精明增长组织的西蒙表示，田纳西州的计划可能不会让联合大道变得更安全。
Instead, officials plan to encourage pedestrians to use pre-existing sidewalks with measures including improving lighting and repainting the crosswalk closest to Bessan-Gligo’s job. Allen places the onus for pedestrian safety on walkers.“Pedestrians think you have the right of way all the time,” he said. “But that doesn’t matter if you’re not paying attention. You assume that responsibility when you’re walking out on that kind of roadway.”Tennessee’s plan probably won’t make Union Avenue safer, Smart Growth America’s Simon said.
联合大道上的人行横道之间仍相隔半英里；她说，如果人行横道距离太远，行人就不会使用它们。请致信丽贝卡·卡登黑德（rebecca.cadenhead@wsj.com）、安德鲁·莫利卡（andrew.mollica@wsj.com）和奥黛丽·瓦尔布埃纳（audrey.valbuena@wsj.com）。
The crosswalks on Union Avenue are still a half-mile apart; if crosswalks are too far away, she said, pedestrians won’t use them. Write to Rebecca Cadenhead at rebecca.cadenhead@wsj.com, Andrew Mollica at andrew.mollica@wsj.com and Audrey Valbuena at audrey.valbuena@wsj.com