Columbus is not the worst big city in America for people on foot, but it is far from bragging rights territory. A new national assessment of pedestrian safety slots the metro area squarely in the middle of the pack, with 172 people killed while walking over a recent five-year span. That works out to an average of about 1.58 deaths per 100,000 residents each year, a record that beats many major regions but still trails several other large Ohio metros. Local officials say the numbers are one more reason they are leaning hard into Vision Zero work.
How Columbus stacks up in the national ranking
According to Smart Growth America, Columbus ranked 73rd out of the 101 largest U.S. metro areas in the Dangerous by Design 2026 report. The group counted 172 pedestrian deaths in the region from 2020 through 2024, with an average annual fatality rate of 1.58 per 100,000 residents.
The report looks at five-year averages and compares them with the previous five-year window from 2015 through 2019. Columbus saw pedestrian deaths rise from 138 to 172, a clear long-term uptick in its fatality rate even as the city tries to position itself as more walkable.
Where Columbus sits inside Ohio
The Columbus Dispatch notes that while Columbus lands around the middle of the national list, its per-capita pedestrian fatality rate is higher than several other large Ohio metros, including Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo. That gap on home turf helps explain why city officials and school leaders are pressing for more focused investments in street design and safety education.
What is driving the trend
Smart Growth America attributes much of the danger to high-speed, car-centered road design, with a disproportionate share of pedestrian deaths occurring on state-owned arterials rather than smaller neighborhood streets.
The 2026 Dangerous by Design report also calls out stark racial and income disparities. Black and Indigenous people and residents of lower-income neighborhoods face significantly higher pedestrian fatality rates than the national average, highlighting that who gets hurt is not spread evenly across the map.
City response: Vision Zero and school safety
City leaders say the time for just studying the problem is over. In an April press release from the City of Columbus, officials confirmed that Columbus secured federal funding to create a Vulnerable Road User Safety Plan and a districtwide Safe Routes to School travel plan. Public Service Director Kelly Scocco put it bluntly, saying, "The city is transforming our transportation infrastructure to prioritize safety above all else."
The city’s Vision Zero program has already tested lane reductions and new traffic signals on corridors identified as high-injury locations, early steps aimed at slowing cars and giving people walking a better chance to survive a mistake.
Next steps and deadlines
Columbus has advertised a request for proposals for the Vulnerable Road User Safety Plan and is lining up consultants to design a pedestrian priority network and a five-year Safe Routes to School plan. Those moves signal concrete planning work ahead of future construction bids, according to GovTribe.
Advocates caution that the real test will come when the city has to put serious capital behind rebuilding the high-speed corridors that are responsible for many of the region’s pedestrian deaths.
Takeaway for walkers
For people on foot, the latest numbers are a mixed bag. Columbus is not among the nation’s deadliest places to walk, but pedestrian fatalities are rising, and the city lags some of its Ohio peers, a combination that officials say demands targeted engineering, enforcement, and education.
The Dangerous by Design findings, covered locally by outlets including Axios Columbus and The Columbus Dispatch, give planners a data-driven roadmap for which corridors and neighborhoods to focus on as they decide what to fix first.
