More cars and more highways equals...
In 2006, there were 6 million traffic crashes in the U.S., injuring just under 2.6 million people. In the same year, a crash occurred every 5 seconds, someone sustained a traffic-related injury every 12 seconds, and someone died in a traffic crash every 12 minutes. The Nations urban congestion problem resulted in 4.2 billion hours of travel delay, 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel, and a net urban congestion cost of nearly $80 billion, according to a 2007 Texas Transportation Institute report. Today, highway vehicle travel accounts for 81% of total U.S. transportation energy consumption.