Providence drivers hit more than 3,600 pedestrians, cyclists in 13 years. Here's where.

PROVIDENCE – Do you live in Rhode Island's capital city? You may have a roughly 1-in-50 chance of being hit by a car while traveling by foot or bicycle.

Thirteen years' worth of data obtained by the Providence Streets Coalition, a local advocacy group pushing for safer streets and more protections for those who don't drive, shows 3,678 pedestrians and cyclists were hit by cars from 2010 through 2022. Overall, 30 people died and more than 700 were injured.

Most of the collisions were downtown, followed by the West End and Elmwood.

Since the spring, volunteers have worked on transforming the trove of data into interactive maps so the public can investigate street safety for itself.

More: How safe are pedestrians and bicyclists from cars in Providence? Here's what we found out.

"The biggest thing to me is how astoundingly common it is in our city for somebody on foot or on a bicycle to be hit be a car," said coalition member Jamie Pahigian, adding: "Some streets are just covered with dots."

Pahigian had asked the state Department of Transportation for this data nearly a year ago and was denied. He fought back, but Pahigian ultimately had to turn to the city to obtain it. The DOT, in its refusal, cited a federal law that said crash data can't be part of discovery in litigation – despite Pahigian's information request having nothing to do with litigation. The department's apparent concern boiled down to the risk of being challenged for not making safety improvements on dangerous streets.

In a statement on Wednesday, DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin said the department wasn't changing its stance.

"At this time RIDOT will continue to maintain its longstanding policy to follow federal law of not releasing crash data, but using it for its intended purpose to have RIDOT and our consultants propose improvements that make roads safer," he said.

But for Pahigian, it's not enough.

"Are they doing their job? Looking at this map," Pahigian said, "not well enough."

More: Pedestrians keep being killed on Providence's North Main Street. What will the city do?

Hit-and-runs account for many crashes in Providence. Why?

According to the data, 28% of the crashes involving cars and pedestrians or cyclists were hit-and-runs. Among those not yet included in the data is an October hit-and-run that killed 85-year-old Vanda Makovetskiy during her morning walk along North Main Street.

It's unclear what motivates drivers to flee scenes in Providence, but a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety report broadly identified various reasons.

A hit-and-run appears to be more likely when fewer witnesses are around, the victim is middle-aged (neither a young child nor an elderly person), and the victim is male instead of female.

North Main Street will see longer crossing times, the DOT says

North Main Street, which has made news not only as the site of tragedy but for being a generally treacherous place for pedestrians, will see safety improvements, the DOT said.

The department, which, rather than the city has jurisdiction over over the street because it is a state route, said it is lengthening crosswalk times to allow pedestrians more seconds to cross.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: These streets in Providence have the most accidents