Nearly 60% of Baltimore’s worst traffic crashes occur on just 7% of city roadways, according to a new data analysis from the city’s Department of Transportation.

Major thoroughfares like Belair Road, Orleans and Pratt streets, and Pennsylvania Avenue are among the roads that scored the worst on a new three-tier list of streets where most fatal and serious traffic crashes happen. A new draft interactive map of what’s called the High Injury Network is available on the department’s website.

Analysts used statewide crash data from 2019 to 2023 to create the network, the five most recent years with complete data available. It coincides with the dog days of the COVID pandemic when most of the country, including Maryland, saw a spike in traffic crashes that killed or seriously injured people.

Transportation planners want to use the network to guide their decision-making about where to pursue safety interventions such as altering roadway designs, changing speed limits and beefing up enforcement with automated cameras.

Brian O’Malley, president and CEO of advocacy and research organization the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, said it’s a “crisis” that hundreds of crashes lead to serious injury or death every year. In 2024, more than 15,000 traffic crashes in Baltimore caused 508 serious injuries and 64 deaths.

“BCDOT [Baltimore City Department of Transportation] knows where the hot spots are. They also know that installing Complete Streets treatments works,” said O’Malley, referring to the approach of designing and retrofitting roads to increase safety for all users that transportation departments like Baltimore’s are increasingly applying.

“What we need is elected leaders who will make the right call even when some people complain loudly about proposed changes,” he said. “We can end the crisis, but not until our leaders back transportation projects that are known to do so.”

Each roadway segment on the High Injury Network map has its own “crash score” based on the number of collisions that caused severe injuries, those involving nonmotorists like bikes or pedestrians, and crashes that resulted in fatalities. Each road segment was broken up into roughly the same length “to ensure fair comparison,” Kathy Dominick, transportation department spokesperson, said in an email.

West Baltimore’s Pennsylvania Avenue has the network’s worst crash score, followed by North Avenue and a segment of North Eutaw Street between Baltimore Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Roads in the first two tiers fall mostly in the city’s denser areas, while many in the third tier are in peripheral neighborhoods.

Officials plan to release a final version of the network early next year after incorporating public feedback through a new public survey, as well as crowd-sourced reports of locations where residents have experienced close calls, known as “near misses.”

The number of crashes in Baltimore overall is down about 16% since 2019, according to city statistics, but the number of serious injuries or deaths resulting from such crashes is up over the same time period.

It mirrors a wider trend across the country of traffic crashes getting more severe over time as vehicles get bigger and heavier. Nationally, pedestrian deaths are trending up in most metro areas, according to Smart Growth America, a transportation and land use think tank.

In 1994, 21% of U.S. traffic deaths were nonmotorists (pedestrians, cyclists, etc.). In 2021, that share rose to 36%.

Maryland is showing signs of improvement, though. Preliminary data shows that road fatalities are down roughly 20% compared to last year. State officials are focused on continuing to drive that number down through a variety of different approaches, including road design, increased enforcement and driver education, said state Motor Vehicle Administrator Chrissy Nizer.

“It’s a variety of solutions, not just one thing, that at the end of the day is going to make a difference in drawing that number down,” she said.