A coalition of state transportation advocates today urged Congress to increase funding for pedestrian safety.

Transportation for Pennsylvania, a coalition formed to address the state's infrastructure and funding problems, said 297 pedestrians were killed in the state last year and cited a study that determined most of the deaths were preventable.

The national report, "Dangerous by Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths (and Making Great Neighborhoods)," said pedestrian fatalities typically occur along streets designed to encourage speeding traffic and that lack safe sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian signals and other protections.

"As Congress prepares to rewrite the nation's transportation law, this report is yet another wake-up call showing why it is so urgent to update our policies and spending priorities," said James Corless, director of Transportation for America, a coalition of housing, environmental, civil rights, public health, urban planning, transportation and other organizations that seeks modernization of transportation policies.

The four most dangerous metropolitan areas in which to walk are in Florida, according to the report: Orlando-Kissimmee, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach and Jacksonville. Pittsburgh was rated relatively safe -- it was 49th of 52 metropolitan areas in a pedestrian danger index developed by the authors.

The group said the more than 76,000 Americans who died while walking in the past 15 years was the equivalent of a jumbo jet going down roughly every month, "yet it receives nothing like that kind of attention."

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.