Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US? | Pedestrian deaths in the US have risen nearly 80% since 2009; This increase has happened almost entirely on urban roads
Posted by ONETRILLIONAMERICANS
Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US? | Pedestrian deaths in the US have risen nearly 80% since 2009; This increase has happened almost entirely on urban roads
Posted by ONETRILLIONAMERICANS
3 Comments
> To recap, here’s what we know about pedestrian deaths.
> * Pedestrian deaths have risen substantially in the US since 2009, by nearly 80%. This increase is seen across the US, though not in every single state. The increase is highest in states in the West and South. There has not been a similar increase in other types of motor vehicle deaths, or in pedestrian deaths in other countries.
> * The increase has happened almost entirely on urban roads: pedestrian deaths on rural roads have remained roughly constant.
> * There has not been much change in what time of day, day of week, or time of year pedestrian deaths are occurring.
> * The 30-39 and 60-79 age brackets have seen the largest increase in victims. Pedestrian deaths of children and teenagers are down over this period. In terms of drivers, the increase has also been largest in the 30-39 and 60-79 age brackets.
> * It’s hard to pin the increase to any specific driver behavior on the road (including mobile phone use). Drivers are rarely charged with a motor vehicle violation following a pedestrian death, and are rarely categorized as “distracted” (by a phone or anything else). State-level data on frequency of driver inattention shows no consistent trends. Rates of driver drinking are only up modestly; rates of driver drug use have risen greatly in percentage terms, but remain a very small fraction of overall pedestrian death accidents. There doesn’t seem to be a clear trend in rates of collisions overall. Drivers don’t seem to be speeding more.
> * In terms of pedestrian behavior, the number of killed pedestrians believed to be using drugs has risen substantially over the period in question, but is still a small fraction of overall pedestrian deaths. Rates of alcohol use by pedestrians have increased modestly. In roughly 2/3rds of pedestrian deaths, the pedestrian is described as “failing to properly yield,” “jaywalking,” or as otherwise improperly in the roadway.
> * In terms of changes in the nature of vehicles, the fatality rate of pedestrian accidents (the proportion of accidents where a pedestrian is killed) has increased dramatically across many different states, suggesting pedestrian accidents are getting more deadly. The frequency of pedestrian deaths in both trucks/SUVs and sedans/compacts has risen substantially.
> Unfortunately, this doesn’t all add up to a clear cause. The strongest evidence seems to be for the “Big SUV hypothesis” — it’s hard to see what else could be causing the increase in deadliness of pedestrian accidents, and not cause a similar increase in other things. The Big SUV hypothesis also seems like something that could be limited to the US. But this on its own isn’t completely satisfying: if its big SUVs, why are pedestrian deaths for sedans increasing too? Why aren’t deaths increasing on rural roads? There are still unanswered questions here.
more reading on this from *The Economist*: https://archive.is/lABbv
!ping YIMBY&TRANSIT&HEALTH-POLICY
Going to come in first and tell anyone looking to comment “Hurr durr, it’s because of pedestrians looking at smartphones everywhere they go” to shut up and read the article first.
Europe and Asia also adopted smartphones at the same time and rate as the US, but our pedestrians are dying at orders of magnitude more than pedestrians in Europe and Asia.
It’s not the smartphones, so abandon the childish and simplistic thinking it’s This One Simple Thing® that would solve the entire problem. If it was, it would have been identified earlier by smarter people who dedicate time into this issue.
Before reading I thought it was from Covid lockdowns because I’ve noticed quality of drivers have dipped since 2020 as well as enforcement is still non-existent. But the trend predates it, and that so much of it happens in urban areas in America.
Anecdotally, in the urban environment I find myself in, it feels like traffic laws are not enforced and erratic or aggressive driving is the norm. A real ‘fuck you, I’m getting mine’ attitude seems to be quite pervasive. It was fucking awful during COVID holy shit.