By Leslie Vasquez
A new study out of Milwaukee highlights a major blind spot in how we approach safety for people on foot. People don’t only cross at intersections; midblock crossings are more common than transportation agencies typically measure and plan for. About one in six crossings in the study happened midblock, sometimes more often than at intersections themselves. This behavior is predictable, widespread, and largely missing in how we design our streets.
The study defines midblock crossings as any crossing more than 50 feet from an intersection. That includes both marked and unmarked crossings, what many people call “jaywalking.” The term, however, has a complicated history. It was popularized in the early 1900s by the auto industry to shift responsibility to people walking and reinforce the idea that roads belonged to cars. This study takes a different approach and instead tries to answer two important questions: where are people actually crossing, and what factors influence that behavior?
To answer them, researchers studied 61 street segments representing a mix of street styles, land uses, and safety conditions across Milwaukee. They paired 24-hour video recordings of these segments with police-reported crash data.
The study found midblock crossings were common. In fact, 75% of the studied street segments had at least one midblock crossing per hour. Across all locations, one in six crossings occurred midblock. On some streets, midblocks were crossed more times than the intersections themselves.
The crossing patterns were revealing. Midblock crossings were more common in areas where people had reasons to cross—higher job density, more retail activity, and proximity to bus stops. However, they were less common on roads with posted speed limits and parks. The study also reinforced the well-established safety dynamic between higher speeds and wider roads being linked to higher risks for pedestrians, while greater pedestrian activity is associated with lower crash rates.
Taken together, these findings highlight a gap between how streets are designed and how people actually use them. Many planning and data collection efforts focus on intersections, even though nearly 80% of pedestrian fatalities occur elsewhere. Without measuring midblock activity, agencies miss a key part of the safety picture.
Better midblock data would help planners make effective safety changes where people are likely to cross. In denser, walkable areas this can mean adding marked midblock crossings and traffic calming measures where people already move. On higher speed corridors, it can mean more frequent and accessible signalized crossings so that people aren’t forced into risky situations. Across all contexts, speed critically shapes where people chose to cross and the severity of crashes.
Fundamentally, this research underscores the need for more data. Most agencies simply are not measuring midblock crossings, which makes identifying risk and evaluating solutions difficult. People walk where it makes sense. If our data and our street designs only reflect where we think they should walk, we miss what’s actually happening and opportunities to make crossings safer.
Photo credit: Roberto Hund via Pexels. License.