The silhouettes mark deaths recorded between Jan. 1, 2021, and June 30, 2026, on Tropicana Boulevard, Flamingo Road, Sahara Avenue, Charleston Boulevard, Decatur Boulevard, Lake Mead Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard North, Las Vegas Boulevard South and Boulder Highway, according to Erin Breen, director of PedSafe Vegas and the Transportation Research Center at UNLV.

Flamingo Road accounted for the most fatalities, with 29 pedestrian deaths over the five-year span, Breen said. Boulder Highway followed with 23, though volunteers did not mark deaths inside the construction zone on the Henderson portion of that road. Charleston Boulevard ranked third with 22, according to a campaign news release.

The campaign's focus is the heightened danger pedestrians face as daylight hours shrink. Breen said the goal is to jolt drivers out of autopilot.

"It's unacceptable," Breen said of the toll. "And routine has a lot to do with it."

October was the deadliest month for pedestrians so far this year, with 11 people killed — roughly one every three days, Breen said. The first half of 2026 had seen pedestrian deaths fall by nearly 40% before the numbers climbed from July through September.

Breen pointed to the time change as a compounding factor: drivers and pedestrians keep the same routines even after nightfall arrives earlier.

"You think, 'well, I've done it this way forever.' You're not paying full attention," she said. "You don't understand that your headlights on a street like Flamingo Road are not going to tell you in time that there's someone crossing the street. And by the time you see them, react, and stop, you've either come very close to them or run them over."

Rebuilding roads is costly and slow, Breen noted, citing work on Maryland Parkway that has stretched more than a decade and Boulder Highway improvements that have taken even longer. Her top priority for adult pedestrians is simple: more places to cross. Along Flamingo Road from Palos Verdes Street, she said, "there's nowhere for pedestrians to cross the street."

Cheaper fixes exist, she added. Re-striping roads costs less than major reconstruction, and better lighting at crossings could help. But on streets posted at 45 mph, Breen said she would rather see lower speed limits than overhead lights at crosswalks.

The campaign continues through the fall. A bicycle enforcement effort is scheduled for Tuesday morning, and next week pedestrian enforcement will be conducted at Rainbow Boulevard and Dewey — the first time the operation is held at dusk. Breen expects it will be at least five years before another version of the chalk outline project is mounted.

The outlines are temporary, washed away by traffic and weather, but organizers say the numbers they represent are not: 172 people whose deaths, in Breen's view, were largely preventable through routine changes to how the region designs and enforces its streets.