Miami, FL
Built environment, Transportation, Community safety and policing | 2025
Investigated pedestrian safety issues to inform and advocate for equitable infrastructure improvements.
The Little Havana neighborhood in Miami has historically faced significant pedestrian safety challenges, recording 293 pedestrian crashes, including 21 fatalities, within a recent five-year period. Factors such as inadequate crosswalks, poor lighting, high-speed traffic, and increased use of electric scooters and bicycles have exacerbated risks, particularly affecting the predominantly Hispanic and immigrant community. Live Healthy Little Havana (HLH), a community-based organization focusing on social determinants of health, conducted a resident-driven initiative to document pedestrian safety challenges.
Through this work, HLH gathered community perspectives and data on the built environment to advocate for improvements to pedestrian safety. HLH staff led a community walk during which residents documented their experiences and observations of pedestrian and bike infrastructure, which highlighted the daily risks of unsafe intersections, inadequate crosswalks, damaged or uneven sidewalks, poor lighting, vehicle speeding, and conflicts with scooters and bicycles.
Project staff synthesized residents’ findings with additional local data including a comparative study of infrastructure conditions over time, data from trash pickups led by Debris Free Oceans, indoor and outdoor environmental condition data collected using C40 sensors, and stakeholder perspectives. Students at the University of Miami also created a digital neighborhood map to showcase data on aspects of the built environment from across data sources. HLH then compiled students’ findings into an accessible and visually engaging pedestrian safety report. HLH presented these findings to city commissioners and plans to share insights with the mayor of Miami. Local transit and pedestrian safety proponents, along with Little Havana residents, will use project findings to continue advocating for pedestrian infrastructure investments, such as enhanced crosswalks, improved lighting, and traffic-calming measures.