US: HIGHEST PER CAPITA TRAFFIC FATALITY RATE AMONG PEERS

-> A recent CDC report, "Vital Signs: Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention — United States and 19 Comparison Countries" (http://bit.ly/2dQoyIa), and Economist Magazine analysis, "America’s Road-safety Record is the Worst in the Rich World" (http://econ.st/2dCvCuh), indicate that, despite huge investments in traffic safety programs and safety engineering, the United States has, by far, the highest per capita traffic fatality rate among peer countries. The United States has high traffic causality rates despite huge investments in safer roads, safer vehicles, and traffic safety programs. These efforts did reduce the U.S. traffic deaths rate by 31 percent between 2000 and 2013, but during that period peer countries reduced their crash rate a much more impressive 55.1 percent. These very high traffic casualty rates (several times higher than peer countries) can be explained by high (about double) per capita annual vehicle mileage and automobile-oriented community design. http://bit.ly/2d8o66V
Investing in high quality public transit and creating more transit-oriented development can provide many economic, social and environmental benefits, including large, community-wide reductions in traffic casualties. See The "Hidden Traffic Safety Solution: Public Transportation" noted in our last issue for details: http://bit.ly/2d54b9m.

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.