Taking the bus might not feel as comfortable as going by car, but according to this research from Montreal, it's safer.
It's often said that it's statistically safer to ride a plane than drive a car, although it doesn't always feel that way. The same may be true for bus passengers. According to a recent study, bus riders in Montreal are only a third as likely to get injured on the road.
John Metcalfe writes, "By perusing police reports from 2001 to 2010, [researchers] found motorists on these routes had more than three times the injury rate of bus passengers. Buses were also safer for people sharing the road."
"[This] work backs up, on the city level, what's been known for some time on the macro scale. In the United States car occupants have a fatality rate 23 times greater than bus passengers, while it's respectively 11 and 10 times higher in Australia and Europe. [Researchers] suggest getting more people on public transit could make a large impact on public health." Of course, conditions vary from place to place, and further micro-scale research in the U.S. would be helpful.
Metcalfe also notes that these statistics cannot apply to bus drivers, whose jobs are often dangerous and unhealthy.
FULL STORY: A Good Way to Avoid Injuries on the Road: Ride the Bus
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Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Tufts University, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning
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