If you walk in the city, you're most at risk in Capitol Hill, the University District and downtown.

You're more likely to be struck by a car in daylight and good weather.

More than 2,400 of you were in traffic-related accidents in the past five years. And 40 died.

City transportation officials say they've done a lot to make dangerous intersections safer for pedestrians. But citizens, safety experts and some City Council members believe more can be done. Today, two council members who count friends and family members among the dead and injured are expected to approve a resolution creating a pedestrian master plan and a city-appointed advisory group to develop it.

The intersection most prone to pedestrian accidents in Seattle has an unassuming appearance: white paint marks all the crosswalks on traffic-signal-controlled streets. Vehicles typically don't travel much faster than 30 mph where four lanes of James Street cross two lanes at Ninth Avenue.

But Kari Tauscher, whose office is on the northwest corner, said she hears an accident every few months and hears the near misses every few weeks. The crosswalk is only a block from Harborview Medical Center, and according to Seattle Transportation Department records, it has had more pedestrian injury incidents -- 14 since 2002 -- than any other location in the city.

The city has taken steps to make the Ninth and James intersection -- and the intersection of Third Avenue and Pike Street, the second most prone to accidents for walkers -- safer. Both have marked crosswalks and traffic signals in all directions, as do nearly all of the intersections with at least five pedestrian accidents in the past five years.

But council President Nick Licata, whose stepson was gravely injured when he was hit by a car, and Councilman David Della, whose chief of staff was killed when he was struck by a car in a crosswalk, believe it's worth spending about $800,000 to develop a pedestrian master plan. The money would be drawn from the $365 million transportation levy approved in November.

If the measure is approved as expected, meetings would be held throughout the city to allow residents to voice their concerns.

"People have been really concerned about pedestrian safety but haven't had an effective way to voice their concerns," said David Levinger, executive director of the non-profit pedestrian advocacy group Feet First. The master plan is a way people can tell the city what they'd like to see happen in their neighborhood, he said.

Given the chance, Tauscher said she'd tell the city to install turn signals at the intersection of Ninth and James.

April Pascarella, an employee at Hot Mama's Pizza, would say her intersection at Boylston Avenue and East Pike Street should have a flashing crosswalk light.

"I've almost been hit there several times," she said of the intersection, which has had six car-pedestrian accidents -- the most of any intersection without signals. "One time a car stopped for me on Pine, but the person behind him went around to pass in the outside lane and nearly hit me. Nobody on Pine slows down for people."

A large majority of pedestrian accidents occur because drivers try to pass stopped vehicles, not realizing people are crossing, Seattle Department of Transportation spokesman Gregg Hirakawa said.

About 850 accidents occurred midblock during the four-year period, usually when pedestrians were jaywalking. Rainier Avenue South had the highest number of incidents in the middle of the street -- with 61 people being struck since 2002.

"We can't engineer against reckless human behavior, and in those cases it might be more appropriate to assess penalties (against drivers)," he said. "It might be better to provide education to pedestrians and drivers."

Dr. Abraham Bergman, a founder of Harborview's Injury Prevention and Research Center, said the city should install speed deterrents instead of relying on pedestrian education and traffic enforcement campaigns. Bergman said pedestrian education does not change the lasting behavior of children, who are some of the most vulnerable to pedestrian accidents. He is a former chief of pediatrics at Harborview.

While children may initially change behavior because of pedestrian education and enforcement measures, studies that Bergman has conducted show that children do not have the developmental skills to safely and consistently cope with traffic.

"That means we can't rely on pedestrian education as the main way to protect kids," Bergman said.

He said that the national drop in pedestrian deaths -- from 6,556 in 1989 to 4,906 in 1999, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration -- is partially because fewer children were pedestrians.

Recent pedestrian fatalities include the death of City Council aide Tatsuo Nakata, who was killed in November in a West Seattle crosswalk. City records show that Nakata's death was the only car-pedestrian incident at the intersection of 47th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Admiral Way in the past five years.

As a memorial to Nakata, who was 29 when he died, Bergman and his Harborview colleagues have urged the city to install 29 intersection islands in 2007.

"We know that these islands placed in four-lane arterials reduce the risk of pedestrians being struck by cars," Bergman said. "They are relatively cheap and do not impede the flow of traffic."

Hirakawa said city transportation officials have not discussed the traffic islands with Bergman because the department "does not want to make speculative comments on a hypothetical situation or predeterminations."

"We don't propose a solution to an area until we look at each area individually," Hirakawa said, adding that Seattle follows federal traffic control standards.

"I'm quite certain there will be some groups that feel that their opinions are not acted on, but that does not mean that they're foreclosed from talking to us. The best plans tend to be dynamic in their application, and there's always a chance to revisit pedestrian issues."

"It's one thing to talk about pedestrian safety in a cerebral fashion," Licata said. "But to actually see how someone's life can be so dramatically impacted makes it a very visceral understanding."

Licata's stepson, Joe Robinson, was 14 years old and walking toward a bus stop in January 2004 when the car nearest him slowed to let him cross four lanes on North 85th Street. But another didn't and carried Robinson for about 75 feet on its shattered windshield before stopping.

Both of Robinson's legs and his left shoulder were broken. Because of the severity of his injuries, medics sedated him almost immediately.

Robinson's mother can't remember what car she drove to Harborview that morning, but she remembers a repetitive "no" screaming in her head.

His body curled in a fetal position as doctors fought to keep his limbs straight, and he appeared to have suffered a traumatic brain injury.

"Before the crash, he was running cross country and going out with friends and turning into an independent teenager," his mother, Andrea Okomski said.

When he came out of the coma after more than four months, Robinson wasn't speaking.

He's doing better now and is looking forward to his 18th birthday next week. He returned to Ballard High School two years ago and -- after months of physical therapy -- learned to walked on his own. He danced at his mother's and Licata's wedding in 2005, and his first words were to say, "Happy birthday," to his mom for the one he missed while in a coma.

Okomski said the family is hopeful for her son's progress -- and for what the pedestrian master plan might do.

"I can't bear the thought of other people suffering the way that Joe had to suffer," she said. "You can't fix a broken brain. You can't give him his freshman year of high school back. But we can change some things if we decide we want to."

TOP INTERSECTIONS FOR PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS

Number of incidents, 2002-06

Ninth Avenue and James Street	14
Third Avenue and Pike Street	12
Broadway and East Pine	11
Denny Way and Stewart Street	10
Fifth Avenue and Spring Street	9
Broadway and East Denny Way	8