As Bicyclist and Pedestrian Awareness Month approaches next week, every road user should be mindful of an alarming uptick in nationwide fatalities involving walkers and bikers, a release from the Virginia Farm Bureau stated.

Transportation planners and officials learned more details at September’s DRIVE SMART Virginia Distracted Driving Summit in Blacksburg.

Pedestrian fatalities have risen post-COVID 19, hitting a 40-year high in 2021 across the U.S, a release said. The increase continued as drivers struck and killed 3,434 pedestrians in just the first six months of 2022, up 5 percent from the same period in 2021, according to the release.

“Our own region is no exception,” Senior Transportation Planner Michael Farrell said. “We had an increase of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in 2022 that was 37 percent over 2021, which basically wipes out 20 years’ worth of progress reducing these fatalities.”

DSV’s 2022 annual report showed 171 pedestrians and 11 bicyclists were k...