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Nov 13, 2009 (The Orlando Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Metro Orlando's designation this week as the country's' most dangerous urban center for pedestrians is a testament to bad planning and an equally poor response by officials to a public safety hazard.

It's not the only metro center in Florida to fail its citizens who prefer or need to get from here to there on foot. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach and Jacksonville also got tagged by the Transportation For America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership for turning their streets into killing zones.

But it's abundantly clear that in a population center the size of metro Orlando, nowhere near 1,887 accidents involving motorists and pedestrians need happen, which was the case from 2007 to 2008. That's especially true when you consider that so few set out on foot in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties to begin with. Only 1.3 percent walk to work.

They're taking a chance walking Central Florida's streets because planners and politicians irresponsibly allowed metro Orlando to grow outward instead of upward. Vertical growth creates densities that spawn roads designed to accommodate pedestrians who walk to work, like in Chicago and Portland, Ore. The sprawl that's now a fixture around Orlando, Tampa-St. Pete and Jacksonville spawns mini-multi-lane highways like Colonial Drive, Orange Blossom Trail and Semoran Boulevard, turning pedestrians frequenting them into squirrels dodging traffic, but not always successfully.

They do so at the too-few intersections that facilitate pedestrian traffic; at intersections that offer pedestrians no real protection; or, of necessity, while crossing roads in spots that are blocks from the nearest intersection.

It's not too late for politicians, transportation planners and public safety officials to help them across the street, however.

Except in a relatively few cases, overpasses aren't the answer. They can cost $3-to-$4 million a piece. And pedestrians spread out along a road like Semoran won't, according to transportation experts, walk a half-mile or so just to get to one.

But governments and their public works departments could install more raised medians on 4-and-6-lane arterial roads, giving pedestrians who can't cross at intersections islands they can cling to before completing their walks across them.

More signs and beacons alerting drivers to approaching intersections or pedestrian-frequented locations would get more motorists to slow down or at least pay attention to what could appear in front of them.

Better street lighting would save lives. A motorist travelling 45 miles an hour has less than 400 feet to come to a stop after he applies his brakes.

And governments need to do a far better job enforcing traffic rules at crosswalks and intersections. A few finally are beginning to issue citations to red light runners. But they don't have their police officers watching for or clamping down on motorists who fail to stop for pedestrians in intersections.

Transportation analysts say police aggressively enforce rules protecting pedestrians in Seattle, a city like Orlando that's not a walker's paradise. But unlike Seattle, which didn't make the list of most dangerous cites for pedestrians, Orlando does too little.

A smart growth planner at Metro-Plan, which sets transportation policy in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties, said Wednesday that he hasn't yet heard from local governments wanting his group to help them make the streets safer for pedestrians. In the wake of metro Orlando's ranking in the report, he said he expects he'll eventually get asked to put something together for discussion.

Metro Orlando's governments need to not just discuss how to make their streets safer, but take action. Even in this economy, it shouldn't be that difficult of a step.

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