It’s no secret that Tennessee is a dangerous place for pedestrians: years of high fatality rates and various initiatives trying to tackle hazardous roadways evidence a long-standing issue. And, now, a new report shows that it has only gotten worse.
Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Smart Growth America has released their “Dangerous by Design” report, which identifies the deadliest states and Metro areas for pedestrians. The report uses information from as recent as 2024, the most recent complete set of federal data points. During that year, 7,080 people were fatally struck while walking in the U.S.
Topping the list, with 5.5 deaths per 100,000 residents: Memphis.
That rate in Memphis marks the highest fatality rate recorded by the report since it began in 2009. It also notes that people of color and lower-income communities experience roadway deaths at a much higher rate. Black Americans face fatalities at 171% of the national average. Native Americans and Alaskan Natives experience the highest percentage of pedestrian deaths at 367%.
“The disparities in pedestrian fatalities are not random,” the report reads. “They are the predictable result of decades of transportation investment and design decisions that prioritize moving cars fast through communities that struggle to keep up. As the United States focused on the convenience of drivers and where they need and want to go, it did so at the cost of leaving lower-income communities and communities of color exposed to more dangerous roads.”
While Nashville’s pedestrian fatality rates are significantly better than those of Memphis, the trend is worsening.
It’s already been a bad start to the year, with 14 people killed while walking — nearly three times more than at this same time in 2025.
The report ranks Nashville 37th out of roughly 100 Metro areas analyzed. While Nashville’s ranking has improved compared to recent years, it’s not because Nashville is getting safer — rather, it’s because other places are getting more dangerous faster. Nashville’s fatality rate has worsened.
Beth Osborne, CEO of Smart Growth America, says this nationwide trend is a result of skewed priorities.
“If you ask most of our transportation leaders, the only thing they’re trying to solve for is congestion and not safety,” Osborne said. “We see a bipartisan connection on dismissing safety in a real way. They’ll give nice speeches, but the fact of the matter is if anybody ever has to slow down while driving, that is the true tragedy as far as they are concerned.”
Improving congestion, Osborne said, can actually makes streets more dangerous, since heavy traffic is key to slowing things down. Smart Growth America recommends that state departments of transportation update and implement new design approaches — things that reduce speeds near neighborhoods or businesses, as well as for federal agencies to “analyze their own behavior.”
“We know on a very visceral level that the design of the roadway can change our behavior, but our agencies will not admit it,” Osborne said. “If they would start there, there’s a lot that we could do. … We need to acknowledge and start to change our design standards so that we have a different way of designing for an interstate and a city road or a town or village road.”
On a local level, Nashville leaders did adopt the “Vision Zero” plan in 2022, which aims to improve roadways to reach zero pedestrian deaths by 2050. There’s also NDOT’s regular traffic calming projects, plus the improvements in the plan approved by Nashville voters during the 2024 transit referendum, which promises investments along the high-injury areas across Davidson County.
Despite these efforts, the report’s figures show Nashville has gotten more dangerous for pedestrians.
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