THE NEW YORK City and Boston metropolitan areas, along with three smaller West Coast cities, ranked among the safest metros across five safety factors, according to a new report.
New York and Boston ranked 1-2 among 100 metros, followed by Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Washington, in the U.S. Safe Streets Index. StreetLight, a subsidiary of Jacobs, weighted five safety factors based on their relative safety impact to create an overall ranking:
- Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)
- Speed differential risk
- Speed-based pedestrian risk
- Truck activity
- Residential speeding
Larger metros performed better overall for roadway safety despite popular misconceptions that big cities are more dangerous. The average safety rank for metros with more than 1 million residents was 47 compared with 57 for metros with fewer than 1 million residents.
The greater New York region, which includes Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, ranked No. 1 for VMT. Worcester, Massachusetts, finished first for speed differential risk while Madison, Wisconsin topped the speed-based pedestrian risk category. In truck activity, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas ranked first and the greater Baltimore, Maryland, region, which includes Columbia and Towson, Maryland, came out on top for residential speeding.
The 19-page report can be found here.