Brighton and Hove one of least safe for pedestrians in UK

The city was one of more than 200 places analysed on statistics to see which areas had the lowest percentage of crashes involving pedestrians on average each year.

Brighton finished 182nd out of 207 local authority areas with 18.07 per cent of crashes involving pedestrians between 2012 and 2021.

There were 443 crashes on average each year and 81 of those on average involved a pedestrian.

The bottom of the list mainly consisted of large cities such as Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and London boroughs. It also included towns in Greater Manchester with a similar population to Brighton such as Bolton and Rochdale.

Brighton is one of the worst cities for pedestrian safety in the UK. Pictured is King's Road in Brighton (Image: Newsquest)

It comes as Brighton and Hove City Council addresses pedestrian safety with ten new crossings on some of the city's most dangerous roads.

Looking up the list, similar-sized cities to Brighton such as Milton Keynes finished much higher with 6.46 per cent of crashes on average involving pedestrians.

Portsmouth, which has a slightly smaller population, came in at 100th with 12.81 per cent of accidents involving pedestrians.

West Sussex came 34th with 7.22 per cent of accidents involving pedestrians on average, while East Sussex came 59th with 8.83 per cent of accidents involving pedestrians.

West Sussex had 102 accidents involving pedestrians out of 1,413 accidents in total, while East Sussex had 90 accidents involving pedestrians out of 1,006 in total.

The study, by website Claims.co.uk, used data from local authorities so data was taken from the two county councils in Sussex.

A spokesman for the company said: “While some areas in the UK may have a considerably large amount of collisions involving cars, it’s interesting to also where the hotspots for pedestrian collisions are as well.

“It’s essential to see this information nowadays too, with many cities turning more and more walkable with time, and this list highlights potentially where work needs to be done.”

Near the top of the list did include more rural areas in general but large towns with a similar population as Brighton such as Warrington, which is between Liverpool and Manchester finished 64th with 9.32 per cent of accidents involving pedestrians on average.

Brighton and Hove has fewer accidents than large cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow and Westminster in London which finished in the bottom three.

Councillor Trevor Muten, chairman of the transport and sustainability committee, said: “We want our streets to be safe for our residents and visitors and so we monitor the number of collisions involving pedestrians and where they happen so that we know how best to allocate funds to prevent accidents.

“We’re currently taking positive action to reduce collisions and improve some of the most challenging pedestrian accident locations in the city, including on Western Road which will include improvements around the Clock Tower junction.

“There has been significant investment to tackle such issues in recent years including through our pedestrian improvement programme and we have identified further areas for improvement through our local cycling and walking infrastructure plan.

“A new framework has also been introduced as a better way of assessing and prioritising road safety improvements in the city and assisting us in delivering of priority areas.

“We are committed to making further improvements and investing in high quality infrastructure which makes walking in our city accessible, enjoyable and safe.”