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FEATURE
<br />What Do We Mean By "Safe
<br />we think about plan
<br />en
<br />or safe communities, we
<br />need to start by asking two basic
<br />questions. What do we mean by safe?
<br />And what do we mean by dangerous?
<br />For the past twelve years, Morgan
<br />Quitno, a national research and publish-
<br />ing company has released its annual
<br />Safest and Most Dangerous Cities reports.
<br />These reports enjoy widespread media
<br />coverage. But Morgan Quitno only looks
<br />at crime categories murder, rape, rob-
<br />bery, aggravated assault, burglary, and
<br />motor vehicle theft to determine, as the
<br />report puts it, "which cities and metro-
<br />politan areas were safest and most dan-
<br />gerous."' Is an exclusive focus on crime
<br />the best way to measure how "safe" our
<br />communities really are?
<br />University of Virginia planning pro-
<br />fessor William H. Lucy has instead
<br />focused on crime and on another aspect
<br />of safety: motor vehicle accidents. Lucy
<br />measured rates of fatal motor vehicle
<br />accidents (a sadly common occurrence)
<br />and rates of homicide -by- stranger (rare,
<br />but a crime widely feared) A startling
<br />pattern emerged: the most dangerous
<br />parts of the metro areas were the most
<br />rural, exurban sectors. For example,
<br />rural Grundy County, Illinois (popula-
<br />tion just over 37,000) was, by Lucy's
<br />1 City Crime Rankings, 12th Edition (Morgan Quinto
<br />Press, 2005).
<br />2 William H. Lucy and David Phillips, Tomorrow's
<br />Cities, Tomorrow's Suburbs (Planners Press, 2006).
<br />by Evan Lowenstein
<br />measure, more dangerous than Cook
<br />County (Chicago). Why? Because the
<br />death -by -auto rate was three times high-
<br />er than the rate in Cook County.
<br />Lucy's research provides an important
<br />service to planners by highlighting that
<br />while crime is the danger that preys most
<br />on Americans' imaginations, there is
<br />more to safety and danger than just
<br />crime.
<br />How can planners make for safer
<br />communities? One step is to scrutinize
<br />the way our communities are designed
<br />and laid out. Planners and public safety
<br />officials must look through the other's
<br />lens to learn more about what can make
<br />their community safer.
<br />William Lucy's research shows us that
<br />the single most important thing we can
<br />do to increase the safety of communities
<br />is reduce the risk of high -speed automo-
<br />bile accidents. High -speed two -lane local
<br />roads and wide arterials are the riskiest
<br />for motorists and for pedestrians.
<br />Seventy -seven percent of fatal auto
<br />accidents occur at high -speed in acci-
<br />dents on rural roads.' In addition, in
<br />many of the fast growing suburban and
<br />exurban regions of the country, the rate
<br />of pedestrian fatalities is going up, even
<br />though fewer people are walking'
<br />According to an American Associa-
<br />3 William H. Lucy, "Watch Out: It's Dangerous in
<br />Exurbia," Planning (November 2000).
<br />4 Mean Streets 2004: How Far Have We Come? (Sur-
<br />face Transportation Policy Project, December 2004).
<br />5 NCHRP Report 500: Vol. 10, A Guide for Reducing
<br />Collisions Involving Pedestrians (Transportation
<br />Research Board, 2004).
<br />tion of State Highway and Transportation
<br />Officials sponsored report, "a pedestrian
<br />hit at 40 mph has an 85 percent chance
<br />of being killed, while at 20 mph, the
<br />fatality rate is only 5 percent. The dan-
<br />ger is exacerbated by the fact that these
<br />roads located in increasingly residential
<br />areas often lack- adequate aprons, side-
<br />walks, and crosswalks.
<br />Of course, while automobiles pose a
<br />major safety challenge, crime is also a
<br />real danger in our communities. Crime
<br />prevention is not the work only of law
<br />enforcement, but also very much the
<br />purview of planners. "Crime prevention
<br />through environmental design" (com-
<br />monly referred to by its acronym,
<br />OPTED) is an approach that recognizes
<br />that "the proper design and effective use
<br />of the built environment can lead to a
<br />reduction in the fear and incidence of
<br />crime and an improvement in the quality
<br />of life." JS� "Understanding CPTED"
<br />The way uses are separated or mixed
<br />within a community can also influence
<br />the type and incidence of crime. Busi-
<br />nesses and houses sited together within
<br />mixed -use neighborhoods can recipro-
<br />cally watch one another, as their occu-
<br />pied and vacant hours tend to be
<br />complementary. Mixed -use development
<br />enables more "24 -hour neighborhoods,"
<br />which can mean more eyes and feet on
<br />the street more hours of the day and
<br />night. Development characterized by
<br />separation of uses and significant dis-
<br />tance from community cores often expe-
<br />rience longer response times from police,
<br />ambulance, and fire services.
<br />Density of development affects safety
<br />too. Despite the safety concerns often
<br />raised in opposition to higher- density
<br />development, research shows that well
<br />designed, higher- density development
<br />can actually curb crime. An Urban Land
<br />Institute study of Greenwich, Connecti-
<br />cut revealed that higher- density housing
<br />PLANNING COMMISSIONERS JOURNAL NUMBER 64 FALL 2006
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