A stretch of path along Flinders Street in Wollongong.
The number of pedestrians killed on Wollongong roads has almost halved in the past 15 years.
However, the most recent five-year statistics for the city show the fatality rates are still significantly higher compared with similar council areas, a report to Wollongong City Council has said.
The document provides a snapshot of pedestrian safety in Wollongong between 1995 and 2010, and notes the importance of road safety upgrades and community education in lowering fatality rates.
The report comes as councillors consider next Tuesday whether to take out a $20 million bank loan to fund major footpath upgrades throughout the city.
The figures reveal accidents involving pedestrians fell from 430 between 1995 and 2000 to 258 between 2005 and 2010.
The number of fatalities fell from 26 to 13 over the same period.
The council acknowledged successive governments had implemented a range of safety programs and awareness campaigns in the past 15 years, including "Think Before You Cross" and "Drink Safe, Walk Safe", but believed the crash data "did not reflect any significant correlation with any one of these initiatives".
Meantime, a comparison of pedestrian accidents in Wollongong, Sutherland, Penrith and Newcastle between 2005 and 2010 found the highest death rate in Wollongong (13), followed by Newcastle (7), Penrith (6) and Sutherland (5).
The cities still ranked in that order when the death rates were averaged per 100,000 population.