ITO World has created a map marking the spot of every road fatality in the country between 2001 and 2009, and it’s shocking (h/t Seattle Transit Blog).

The victims are marked by whether they were in a car, on a motorcycle, on a bike or walking. Each victim square also notes the victim’s age, gender and year of death.

Something that stands out to me is how the majority of deaths outside the central business district were people inside cars. These deaths follow the city’s highways, mostly, but some busy (and poorly designed) arterial streets also claim a fair number of victims.

However, the story changes downtown, where the vast majority of deaths were people walking.

Many of the people killed while biking were near larger intersections and interchanges. We still have a lot of work to do to make sure bicycle infrastructure does not simply disappear right when people need it the most: Getting through a busy intersection or highway crossing.

What do you notice from the map?

The city recently wrapped up a series of Road Safety Summit forums and is currently working to put the information gathered together and come up with some next steps. The final meeting will be 6 p.m December 12 at City Hall.