US Traffic Deaths Fell by 12% in One Year. How Did it Happen?

Traffic deaths in the United States dropped by an impressive 12 percent between 2024 and 2025. In a piece for Streetsblog USA, Kea Wilson outlines three theories for why this happened — and how to keep the momentum going.

According to Wilson, one theory is that street safety funding provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 is paying off. Another is that the shift in commuting patterns brought on by the pandemic has spread out traffic throughout the day. “If more U.S. motorists are sitting in traffic jams at all hours of the day and night, that could potentially explain why fewer of them are hitting the kind of dangerous speeds that are most likely to kill people, especially if fewer Americans dare to walk or bike.”

A third hypothesis points to traffic enforcement, but Wilson notes that data on traffic stops as compared to road safety is complicated by a number of factors. “That’s why it's important not to jump to conclusions about what drove deaths down in 2025 until researchers have a chance to prove solid, causal relationships.”