The 3 Most Dangerous Cities for Pedestrians in Southern California

Los Angeles, Long Beach, and San Bernardino. What do these three cities have in common? They are three of the most dangerous cities for pedestrians in Southern California. What makes them especially dangerous are wide streets, fast corridors, and poor nighttime visibility in many areas. These conditions are a recipe for disaster when it comes to walking on a sea of concrete amongst schools of cars.

You won’t be surprised to learn that one of the more dangerous intersections in these cities are the kinds where freeway exits meet street intersections. Drivers still carry a lot of speed from the freeway to zoom around green lights or try to make it past a yellow light. These higher speed exits make it hard to stop if the driver spots a pedestrian at the very last second.

Across the three cities, you’re probably wondering why another major city—San Diego—isn’t on the list. There are a lot of pedestrians there, and they have a higher total of pedestrian deaths and accidents than Long Beach. You’d be right, except Long Beach has a higher death per capita rate than San Diego.

Ready for who’s number one for most dangerous city for pedestrians? You won’t be surprised…

Los Angeles is the Most Dangerous City for Pedestrians in SoCal

No one is shocked by this. Los Angeles recorded over 1,400 pedestrian injuries and deaths in 2023 and over 150 deaths in 2024. Careless driving certainly contributes to the incidents, but so does the infrastructure. At night, many intersections have poor lighting conditions and unsafe crossing areas for pedestrians. Even marked and protected crosswalks seem unsafe to cross—has anyone tried to navigate the Olympic and San Vicente intersection by foot?

Here are some notorious intersections in L.A.:

• S. Figueroa Street & Slauson Avenue, near the 110 Freeway
• Sepulveda Boulevard & Roscoe Boulevard, near the 405 Freeway
• S. Vermont Avenue & W. Florence Avenue
• Figueroa Street & Florence Avenue
• Figueroa Street & Manchester Avenue
• Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue and the Gower-to-Lyman corridor
• South Broadway near 95th, 97th, and 103rd Streets
• Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue, 3rd Street, and Pico Boulevard corridors identified in Vision Zero work

Combine streets designed with cars in mind with drivers distracted by phones and screens and you have a recipe for vehicle-on-human collisions.

Long Beach: An Unexpected Pedestrian Danger Zone

When we think of dangerous cities for pedestrians, we usually consider the big cities like L.A., San Diego, and San Bernardino or Riverside (which surprisingly didn’t make the top three here). But Long Beach caught us off guard, although it made more sense the deeper we investigated. Here’s a thought to chew on: pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists account for only 14% of all collisions in Long Beach, but comprise 65% of all traffic deaths in the city.

The City of Long Beach has found that with each 10mph increase in speed, fatality rates from collisions increase exponentially. At 20mph, the likelihood of injury or death is 13%, but at 30mph and 40mph, that skyrockets to 40% and 73%, respectively. This strengthens the city’s case for lower speed limits in some areas.

High-risk streets in Long Beach include:

• East Anaheim Street, including areas near Cherry Avenue, Cedar Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue
• Pacific Coast Highway, especially from Pacific Avenue to Temple Avenue
• Long Beach Boulevard, including the Randolph Place-to-69th Way corridor
• 7th Street near Cal State Long Beach
• Pacific Avenue
• Atlantic Avenue
• Cherry Avenue
• Ocean Boulevard
• Artesia Boulevard

Many of these streets are wide and have fast speed limits. When visibility is poor or drivers are distracted, pedestrians have to be more vigilant. When you’re on foot, you have to take time to judge an approaching car’s speed and, if they’re close enough, see whether their eyes are on you or the road. We’ve often had close calls where we noticed a driver not looking at us at all.

San Bernardino Pedestrian Safety, Or Lack Thereof

Like Long Beach, San Bernardino has a smaller total number of pedestrian accidents than Los Angeles, and an even smaller makeup of percentage of pedestrian collisions. However, also like Long Beach, pedestrians and cyclists make up a disproportionately large number of fatalities in the city.

In 2022, the city ranked 3rd out of 61 similarly sized cities for pedestrian victims. While pedestrians only make up 6% of all collisions there, they account for 33% of the city’s severely injured or killed citizens.

The riskiest San Bernardino areas include:

• Baseline Street
• Waterman Avenue & Baseline Street
• Highland Avenue & Eucalyptus Drive
• 9th Street from Waterman Avenue to Del Rosa Avenue
• 30th Street from San Gabriel Street to Cedar Street
• Meridian Avenue corridor
• University Parkway / I-215 interchange near Cal State San Bernardino
• Mount Vernon Avenue freight-related corridors

What the Most Dangerous Cities for Pedestrians Have in Common

When it comes to what makes a city dangerous for pedestrians, they all have several points in common. These include:

• Freeway Ramp Proximity: Drivers leaving the I-110, I-405, or I-215 carry freeway speeds into surface streets before they can adjust.
• Wide Arterials: Streets with five to seven lanes force pedestrians to cross long distances while giving drivers more room to speed.
• Left-Turn Conflicts: Drivers often watch for gaps in car traffic but fail to see a person in the crosswalk to their left.
• Poor Lighting: Many fatalities occur between dusk and early morning. Long Beach and Los Angeles both report high rates of nighttime injury crashes.
• Long gaps between marked crossings: When safe crossings are too far apart, pedestrians are more likely to cross mid-block.
• Speed: Higher impact speed sharply increases the likelihood of severe injury or death.

Once you recognize when you’re walking or cycling in these high-risk parts of a city, you should take more caution when crossing streets or using sidewalks that are interrupted by driveways. Regardless of city or time of day, you should also be vigilant of your peripheral vision and hearing. Too many pedestrians, bus and train commuters, and cyclists have headphones on, limiting their awareness when it comes to the sounds of oncoming cars or bicycles and motorcycles.

Runners and joggers who enjoy listening to music or podcasts should set their headphones to modes that let them hear their environment, rather than noise cancelling. Lowering volume also helps, as loud audio can drown the sound of emergency vehicles and other hazards.

Be vigilant, remain aware, and if you’re ever in doubt, play it safe. It’s easy to say “pedestrians always have the right of way,” and while that might be true, it comes down to your exposed body versus a 3,500-pound car. It’s better to be in the “wrong” and keep yourself intact. Stay safe out there!