Pedestrian and bicycle crash hotspots in metro Phoenix and Prescott
Phoenix has a pedestrian problem that shows up in the numbers year after year. In 2023 the city ranked second in the country for the raw number of pedestrians killed, behind only Los Angeles, and third for the rate of pedestrian deaths per capita, behind Albuquerque and Memphis, according to NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System as cited in the city's own 2026 safety study1. Zoom out to the whole state and the picture doesn't improve much: Arizona ranks third among all states for pedestrian fatality rate, behind only New Mexico and Louisiana, and the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro area sits 22nd nationally with 782 pedestrian deaths between 2020 and 2024, up from 660 in the previous five-year span2.
None of that is spread evenly across the valley. A short list of corridors and intersections accounts for a disproportionate share of the damage, and the city and county both have the crash data to prove it.
Where the crashes cluster
The City of Phoenix's newest safety study, a supplement to its Vision Zero Road Safety Action Plan released in March 2026, mapped every reported pedestrian and bicyclist crash from 2016 through 2023: 5,832 pedestrian injury crashes and 2,671 bicyclist injury crashes citywide1. From that data, planners built a High Injury Network of 43 intersections and 48 street segments that account for an outsized share of Phoenix's serious and fatal pedestrian crashes, plus a separate network of 21 intersections and 26 segments for bicyclists1. The pedestrian network isn't scattered randomly. It concentrates in the dense core of the city, running east-west between Indian School Road and McDowell Road and north-south between 19th and 35th Avenues1.
That same west-central pocket also dominates a separate, independently run ranking. The Maricopa Association of Governments scores nearly 22,000 intersections across the region on a recurring basis, using a crash-risk formula weighted for frequency, severity, and crash type. Using 2018-2022 crash data, the single highest-risk intersection in the region is 67th Avenue and McDowell Road, followed by 51st Avenue and Camelback Road3. Several of the West Valley's worst intersections sit directly on Indian School Road, including 67th Avenue and Indian School (256 crashes) and 83rd Avenue and Indian School (187 crashes)3. By sheer crash count, nothing on the list tops 99th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road, which logged 429 crashes over that same five-year window3.
Most of it happens mid-block, not at the corner
It's tempting to picture these crashes at busy corners, but the data says otherwise. Sixty-five percent of Phoenix pedestrian crashes involving a death or serious injury happen on street segments between intersections, not at the intersections themselves1. Arterial roads, the wide, high-speed streets built to move traffic rather than serve a neighborhood, are about 6.6 times more likely than the average street to produce a serious pedestrian crash, while local residential streets are roughly 15 times less likely1. Speed limit matters more than almost anything else: streets posted at 40 mph account for over half of all pedestrian deaths and serious injuries and about 45% of bicyclist ones, despite making up only a quarter of the road-miles studied1. Signals actually help. Signalized intersections carry the lowest share of severe crashes among controlled locations, at 28%, compared with 32% at stop-controlled intersections and 38% on segments with no control at all1.
Pedestrians and cyclists keep different hours
Pedestrian crashes cluster in the evening, peaking between 6 p.m. and midnight, with Fridays the worst day of the week1. Statewide, the single peak hour for pedestrian crashes is 6 to 7 p.m.4 Darkness is a major factor: about 77% of Arizona's fatal pedestrian crashes in 2024 happened after dark, lit or unlit4. Bicyclist crashes follow the opposite clock, tracking a commuter schedule with peaks in the morning and afternoon rush; the statewide peak hour for bicycle crashes is 3 to 4 p.m., squarely in the school and work commute4.
Prescott and the rest of the market
Away from the Phoenix core, the numbers thin out but don't disappear. Yavapai County, home to Prescott, recorded 42 pedestrian crashes and 48 bicycle crashes in 2024, including five pedestrian deaths and one bicyclist death4. That's a fraction of Maricopa County's 1,516 pedestrian crashes and 991 bicycle crashes the same year, but Maricopa and Pima counties together still account for nearly 80% of the state's pedestrian fatalities and 82% of its bicycle crashes4. Prescott's own collision study, last updated with data through mid-2008, found that pedestrian and bicycle crashes there clustered on the city's minor arterials, especially Gurley Street, and that 41% of pedestrian collisions happened mid-block rather than at an intersection or marked crosswalk5. The city has acknowledged that analysis is overdue for a refresh, but the underlying pattern, midblock crossings concentrated on a handful of busy downtown streets, tracks what Phoenix sees at a much larger scale.
What the city is doing about it
Phoenix treated this as a crisis of its own making back in 2022, after 231 people died on city streets in 2021, the highest total since 2000 and a 25% jump from 185 deaths the year before6. That's what pushed the city to adopt its Road Safety Action Plan and join the national Vision Zero Network, aiming for zero traffic deaths by 20506. Since then, Phoenix has added 34 HAWK pedestrian crossing beacons, bringing the citywide total to 77, plus roughly 120 miles of bike lanes6. The city estimates that killed-and-serious-injury crashes on its High Injury Network cost the community $2.75 billion between 2016 and 2020 alone, which is part of why the newest study targets engineering fixes, like protected crossings and speed reduction, at the specific intersections and segments identified above rather than spreading money evenly across the map1.
If you or someone you know is hit while walking or biking in the Phoenix or Prescott area, the details above, the posted speed limit, the lighting, whether the crossing was signalized, often end up mattering a great deal to what happened and why. An attorney who handles these cases locally can help you sort through it; you can find one through our legal directory.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice.
Sources
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City of Phoenix, "Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Road Safety Action Plan: Pedestrian Risk Network Report," March 28, 2026: https://www.phoenix.gov/content/dam/phoenix/streetssite/documents/rsap/SS4A_RSAP_Pedestrian_Risk_Network_Report_3.28.2026.pdf
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Smart Growth America, "Dangerous by Design 2026" rankings: https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/signature-reports/dangerous-by-design/rankings/
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Maricopa Association of Governments, Transportation Safety Committee, "Top 100 Intersections Ranked by Crash Risk Using 2018-2022 Crash Data (MAG Region)": https://azmag.gov/Portals/0/Documents/List-Top-100-Intersections-Ranked-by-Crash-Risk-MAG-2018-2022.pdf
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Arizona Department of Transportation, "2024 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts for the State of Arizona," published July 9, 2025: https://azdot.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/2024-Crash-Facts.pdf
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City of Prescott, "Bicycle and Pedestrian Collision Analysis, January 2006 through June 2008" (Appendix B to the Prescott Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan): https://prescott-az.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Prescott-2015-Bike-Ped-Master-Plan-Appendices.pdf
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City of Phoenix, "Road Safety Action Plan: Moving to Vision Zero," adopted September 7, 2022: https://www.phoenix.gov/content/dam/phoenix/streetssite/documents/vision_zero_road_safety_action_plan.pdf