Opinion: U.S. Must Prioritize Safety for Non-Drivers

Americans are routinely taught to treat traffic crashes and automobile-related deaths as tragic, but sometimes unavoidable, “accidents,” writes Farhad Manjoo. “But as the journalist Jessie Singer has argued, in much of American life, many ‘accidents’ are far from accidental — they are instead the inevitable result of political and economic choices that society has made, and they might have been prevented had we made other, safer choices.”

Manjoo points to simple ways to improve safety for bike riders being implemented in other countries: “protected bike lanes, which offer a physical barrier between cars and bicycles; raised areas at corners behind which bikes could safely queue while waiting for the light to change; a “setback” that forces cars to wait farther back from the intersection, improving their ability to see pedestrians and bikers, and separate signals for bikes and cars, to help each kind of vehicle stay out of the other’s way.” 

In a “major reversal” of prior trends, writes Manjoo, “American roads have grown especially dangerous to ‘nonoccupants’ of vehicles — that is, bicyclists and pedestrians. In 2011, 16 percent of traffic deaths were of nonoccupants; in 2020 it was 20 percent.”

Manjoo argues that to improve safety for all road users, we need a fundamental shift in how we approach urban design, transportation planning, and the regulation of vehicles. “We have to make cars smaller, because S.U.V.s are significantly more deadly to pedestrians than sedans. We have to slow them down, because speed kills. And we have to be willing to slightly inconvenience drivers to improve the roads for everyone else.”