Rarely is the key to success as simple as “put your phone down and look up.” But when it comes to rolling back a national trend of increasing pedestrian deaths in traffic accidents, that actually might be one of the most effective things everybody can do.

In Pennsylvania there were 153 pedestrian fatalities in 2015 — a decrease from the 168 deaths in 2012 that is the high water mark of the past five years. The number of deaths was down from the previous year, when 166 pedestrians were killed, but still represents a 3 percent increase from 2010 according to PennDOT data. Nationally pedestrian deaths as a percentage of all traffic fatalities have spiked by 15 percent, from 4,109 in 2009 to 5,376 in 2015.

In Butler County no pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in 2015, though 14 were injured in traffic accidents that year. In 2014 there were 3 pedestrian fatalities, according to an annual report published by PennDOT.

An important distinction to note is that it’s both distracted drivers and pedestrians, that are being identified as the cause of these deaths. But the balance of power lies clearly with drivers. When the popular mobile game Pokemon Go launched this summer, it was widely chided as a possible hazard for both pedestrians and drivers.

But it turns out that the fears proved unfounded. News reports have only identified one pedestrian fatality — a 14-year-old in Detroit who was killed by an allegedly drunk motorcyclist in October — linked to the game.

By an order of magnitude the bigger threat is distracted drivers according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, who late last year launched a series of voluntary initiatives to try and combat the problem.

Other federal agencies and national organizations have also announced a campaign aimed at eliminating all traffic deaths and injuries within 30 years — including a push for self-driving cars and efforts to convince developers to design electronic devices that keep drivers’ eyes on the road.

There are more localized initiatives focused on pedestrians as well. In October the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership paid improvisational actors to dress up as the Grimm Reaper and zombies, wandering the streets downtown and surprising pedestrians glued to their phones. The effort also used a technology called geofencing to send push alerts to people viewing certain apps near busy intersections, reminding them to look up.

It’s going to take a combination of innovation and common-sense to roll back this nationwide rise of pedestrian fatalities.

Self-driving technology looks promising but is untested in the real world. Its cost is also an unknown — what good are self-driving cars if only ride companies and the very wealthy can afford them?

So-called voluntary campaigns, which amount to nothing more than politely asking people and businesses to do certain things, are a good low-cost route. But their effectiveness is, by nature, uneven.

Pittsburgh’s co-opting of technology to remind people of their personal responsibility when it comes to public safety is a refreshing way to engage with the problem.

At one time or another, we’re all pedestrians. And keeping people safe when they’re on foot is a shared responsibility. Safety on the road, and on the sidewalk, isn’t a one-way street.