Walkers, Beware

Susan Hubbard, a spokeswoman for the Prince George's Department of Public Works and Transportation, said the county was unfairly "singled out" in the report.

"Prince George's County was at one time very much a rural county," Hubbard said. "With the influx of population, it has become more of an urban county. We're doing what we can."

Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff C. McKay (D-Lee), whose district includes the Route 1 area, said one of the problems with that road is that motorists use it as an alternative to Interstate 95, acquiring the "parallel mind-set that it's an interstate."

And Fairfax police Cmdr. Mike Kline said many fatalities on the busy highway involve pedestrians with high blood-alcohol levels who might not be attentive to traffic.

Cort, the author of the study, said it was time to "stop blaming the victims."

Benjamin Lomax, 41, who has lived along the Route 1 corridor all his life, said he knows three people who have been hit trying to cross the road.

"It's so dangerous out here," Lomax said as he waited for a bus yesterday. "There's parts of this road where you have to walk more than a mile to get to a crosswalk just to cross the street. Who's going to do that?"