By Pete Stidman
News Editor

Getting hit by a car while walking through the neighborhood is a somewhat unlikely thing to happen to anyone, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't keep an eye out while legging it across the street. It might be useful to know that motor vehicles are far more likely to strike pedestrians in some Dorchester locales than in others.

Just how many bumpers meet flesh each year is impossible to determine, as accidents without serious injuries often go unreported. But if a victim is hit hard enough to need medical help, a Boston Emergency Medical Services ambulance is usually called to the scene. According to BEMS ambulance records, 910 people were transported to hospitals after being hit by motor vehicle in Boston in 2006, much lower than the 10-year high in 1997, which numbered well over 1150.

According to a list of the 50 worst "E-blocks" in the city compiled for the Reporter by BEMS as part of a request under the Public Records Act, Dorchester's Blue Hill Avenue and Bowdoin Street are among the more dangerous streets in the city to cross. E-blocks, or blocks, are small areas, usually one city block long or less, used by BEMS to organize the city by location. There are over 4800 E-blocks in the city, and in most, nobody gets hit. The overall average is about .2 incidents per year per block.

The worst block in the city is conveniently located right around the corner from Boston EMS' main office near Massachusetts Avenue and Albany Street, where Boston Medical Center patients and workers crisscross Mass. Avenue at all hours. From that intersection over to Melnea Cass Blvd., 14 people were hit in 2005 and 2006 combined, seven per year.

Dorchester hosts the second worst block in the city, along Bowdoin Street between Quincy and Hamilton streets. Eleven people were hit there in the same two-year span, including six at Bowdoin and Hamilton, four at Quincy near the Pasciucco Apartments for elderly and disabled persons, and one in front of St. Peter School, an overall average of 5.5 per year.

Back in 1998, in response to a number of highly publicized pedestrian accidents, the Boston Public Health Commission began the Walk This Way campaign. Through surveys, they discovered that 34 percent of pedestrians jaywalked, and only 12 percent always crossed at the crosswalk with the light, according to Erin Christiansen, a BPHC program director that worked on the campaign. This and other information sparked a campaign with many positive results. Walk signals with countdowns appeared at many intersections, including many in Dorchester, fences were built down the middle of Commonwealth Avenue to prevent jaywalking, and new speed-reporting boards were parked at various spots around the city.

There was also a short-lived TV and radio campaign using Run-DMC and Aerosmith's famous "Walk This Way" tune. Christiansen still gives presentations to grade-schoolers that started with the campaign, including Walk To School Day every October when school kids march down Dorchester Avenue's sidewalks.

By 2002, pedestrian hits dropped by 10 percent. The media campaign ended in 2003 and so did compiling the list of Boston's 50 most dangerous E-blocks.

"I don't know the specifics of those locations, but if the numbers are ticking up at them, we'll probably request the accident report data," said Boston Transportation Department planning director Jim Gillooly when asked what could be done to make the crossings safer. "If it looks like it could get an engineering fix we would do that, but if someone breaks the law we could re-engineer the intersection forever and it doesn't necessarily help."

Road reconstruction, along the lines of the Dot Ave Project or current reconstruction projects happening on Mass. and Commonwealth avenues, is rare in the life of most city streets, happening once every 15 to 50 years. According to some pedestrian, bicycling and disabled person advocates and observers of the city's road planning process, pedestrian concerns can often be pushed to the side.

"We spent years working on helping Mass Highway re-write their roadway design guidelines, published in 2006," said Anne Hershfang, member and former director of WalkBoston, a pedestrian advocacy group. "In there, there is permission for narrower travel lanes and greater variety of design options that are good for pedestrians and cyclists and I don't know that the city is taking advantage of it. I don't know if they're overwhelmed, too busy, or in the wrong era."

Narrow travel lanes, said Hershfang, compel drivers to go slower. The city has a strict guideline of a minimum 11-foot wide lane to accommodate trucks and buses, even though the state road design manual allows for narrower.

Another example she gave is BTD's elimination of medians at intersections in the redesign of Mass. Avenue, including the accident-prone stretch at Albany Street. Planted medians are planned for other parts of the street, but without medians at crosswalks, Hershfang said pedestrians who make it only halfway across could be routinely marooned in the middle of the street. The project is funded for construction in 2008, and the final design is due soon.

Gillooly confirmed that some medians were taken out on Mass. Avenue to make way for left-hand turn lanes. He believes the result will actually be safer. On a two lane road without left-hand turn lanes, traffic gets bottled up when cars behind those waiting to turn left try to go around. "The result is, they're paying more attention to not damaging their car and they're not looking at pedestrians. The overall intersection will be better. Crossing times will be lengthened so they don't get stranded going across the street."

Blue Hill Avenue is perhaps the city's second most dangerous street after Mass. Avenue, with five of its intersections showing up on the top 50 E-blocks list. According to Gillooly, the city recently secured an earmark of federal money for some reconstruction, although "less grandiose" than the Mass. Avenue work. Between the two Blue Hill intersections at Columbia and at Seaver alongside Franklin Park, nine people were hit in 2005-2006.

"We've been out at a number of intersections along Blue Hill," said Hershfang. "The city asked us to do it. It's just too wide and too fast."

The intersection received countdown walk signals as a result of the Walk This Way program, and even retains some of the public service signs from the campaign warning people to be careful crossing. Asked what else could be done to make is safer, Gillooly said he'd have to take a closer look, but added, "My first and foremost advice to the public is this: Get a little exercise and push the button… Can you get that on a bumper sticker?"