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- cross-posted to:
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GHSA previously issued a report finding that 3,434 pedestrians were killed on U.S. roadways in the first half of 2022, based on preliminary data reported by State Highway Safety Offices. A second report analyzing state-reported data for all of 2022 found that roadways continue to be incredibly deadly for pedestrians. There were 2.37 pedestrian deaths per billion vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 2022, up yet again and continuing a troubling trend of elevated rates that began in 2020.
The report also includes an analysis of 2021 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System to provide additional context on when, where and how drivers strike and kill people on foot. This analysis uncovered a shocking safety disparity for people walking: Pedestrian deaths rose a troubling 77% between 2010 and 2021, compared to a 25% rise in all other traffic fatalities. The data analysis was conducted by Elizabeth Petraglia, Ph.D., of research firm Westat.
To combat this pedestrian safety crisis, GHSA supports a comprehensive solution based on the Safe System approach outlined in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS). Each of the five elements of this approach – safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads and post-crash care – contribute in different but overlapping ways to provide a multi-layered safety net that can protect people on foot as well as other road users. The report includes examples of how states are utilizing Safe System principles to improve pedestrian safety.
Wait, how did it go UP in 2020? Do you guys remember 2020? How could you possibly get run over by a car in 2020? Did the twelve people who still got to drive to places try extra hard? What the hell?
Plenty of blue collar workers didn’t get the “luxury” of staying home. I think the only time I was staying home was for a few weeks as a temporary layoff cause there wasn’t enough work to do, not because of any kind of safeguarding.
Combine that with people generally being a lot more lax with regards to following traffic laws and pedestrians who are expecting cars less, you’ve got a recipe for distatser.
Yeah, I remember 2020 – the 5 weeks I got off were glorious. That’ll never happen again.
Empty roads = no traffic = idiot drivers driving extra fast and careless
Yes, they did. I had to be on the roads a bit at the height of the pandemic due to my job. Far fewer people were driving, but basically all of them were driving like absolute raving lunatics. People were acting under the assumption that cops wouldn’t be out (which was probably true, on average) so therefore laws just didn’t exist anymore.
I also notice that a highly visible subset of drivers have continued to behave this way even after the return to “normal.” They’re usually identifiable by the ownership of a Nissan Altima with haphazardly applied window tint, often spotted squeezing up the shoulder to run a red light into traffic without bothering to look first.
That or a Dodge Ram
So the context is that roads in the U.S are generally designed for speeds way higher than what the speed limit is, and what the average speed with regular traffic volumes is. The pandemic removed a lot of this traffic, which was the primary impediment to drivers driving the design speed of the roads. This higher speed then led to the increased pedestrian fatalities.
I worked through COVID and drove a lot - I was a custom integrator (yeah…that was deemed “essential”) stopping at 1-4 homes per day. I’m less surprised by there being enough vehicles to kill with than there being enough pedestrians to hit. Seeing more than one or two people on the way to a client’s house was rare
Driving downtown from the office took 12 minutes. For context, it was usually a 45-60 minute ride. Barely anyone was on the road and I never had issues parking
That does seem very suspect. Maybe it’s adjusted for miles driven? Even though less driving happened, per mile driven the rate still increased.