Street Smart NJ is a public awareness and behavioral change pedestrian safety campaign. Since its creation in 2013, more than 300 communities have participated in Street Smart NJ.
Street Smart NJ emphasizes educating drivers and pedestrians through mass media and grassroots outreach, as well as targeted enforcement. Police officers focus on engaging and educating, rather than simply issuing citations. Street Smart NJ complements, but doesn’t replace, other state and local efforts to build safer streets and sidewalks, enforce laws and train better roadway users.
The campaign is coordinated by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) and is supported by federal and state funds, with additional funding/in-kind contributions from local partners, including the state’s eight Transportation Management Associations.
Communities and organizations everywhere are invited to use the strategies and materials on this website to create their own campaigns
Evaluations are periodically conducted to gauge the effectiveness of Street Smart NJ campaigns.
In New Jersey
- New Jersey’s pedestrian fatality rate was 2.21 per 100,000 population in 2024, ranking it 19th among all states. However, pedestrians comprised 31 percent of all people killed in fatal crashes, while the national average is 18 percent.
- In 2024, there were 670 fatalities caused by crashes. This included 210 pedestrians and 25 cyclists.
- From 2020 through 2024, 946 pedestrians were killed on the state’s roads. That translates into one death every 1.9 days.
A National Problem
- 7,080 pedestrians died in traffic crashes in the U.S. in 2024, a 3.9 percent decrease from 2023.
- Alcohol involvement—for the driver and/or the pedestrian—was reported in 43 percent of all fatal pedestrian crashes in 2024.
- On average, a pedestrian was killed every 74 minutes and injured every 7 minutes in traffic crashes in 2024.
- 84 percent of pedestrian fatalities occurred in an urban setting.
- 18 percent of pedestrian fatalities in 2020 occurred at intersections.
- 69 percent of the pedestrians killed in traffic crashes in 2020 were male.
- More pedestrian fatalities occurred in the dark (76 percent) than in daylight (20 percent), dusk (2 percent), and dawn (2 percent).