Traffic Fatalities
An op-ed wonders when enough bike fatalities will be enough.
The Orange County Register
2015 was the first year that driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) surpassed those killed while driving under the influence of alcohol. Increased legal access to marijuana is correlated with the surge. Amphetamine use is also a factor.
The Washington Post
Ghost bikes, sad, silent tribute to those killed while riding bikes, are more controversial than seems possible. The Chicago Tribune has a map that endeavors to track their locations around the Chicago area.
Chicago Tribune
Initial data from the National Safety Council (NSC) suggest that more than 40,000 Americans died on the country's roads in 2016 for the first time in a decade.
The Hill
Making the case for reduced speed limits is a matter of life and death.
Walk Arlington
The U.S. Department of Transportation wants light-duty vehicles to communicate with each other via advanced technology, known as connected vehicle technology, to prevent crashes. The vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) rule would be phased in over five years.
U.S. Department Of Transportation
The death toll on the streets of Washington, D.C. are unchanged a year after the District launched its Vision Zero initiative.
WAMU
The driver has been arrested and charged with the deaths of five children who died at the scene of the one-vehicle crash in which the bus slammed into a tree on Monday afternoon. The National Transportation Safety Board is on the scene.
WRCB tv
"With this campaign, we’re making clear that zero is the only acceptable number of deaths on our roads."
U.S. Department Of Transportation
The fastest two minutes in planning news.
Planetizen
The U.S. Department of Transportation wants to hear from the public to help explain the 35,092 traffic deaths last year, an increase of 2,348 people from 2014. It has issued a 'call to action' to help interpret the data.
Fast Lane (DOT blog)
That is, not very well.
The Economist
A 9 percent increase in fatalities on the nation's highways compared to the same period in 2015 does not appear to be a result of increased driving, which jumped 3.3 percent during that period, but rather an increase in the rate of fatal crashes.
National Safety Council
Calling it 'mind boggling' that municipalities are removing 'proven safety tools,' the Governors Highway Safety Association strongly endorsed the use of the controversial red light cameras to 'to improve safety for all road users.'
Governors Highway Safety Association
The debate about the benefits of transportation network companies, like Uber, continues.
NPR
A new study shows what happens when cities remove red light cameras, which have become targeted by many motorists and eliminated by at least 158 cities. Fatal crashes increased 30 percent compared with area cities that kept the controversial cameras.
CNBC
A May 7 crash of a Model S Tesla in Florida may have outsized implications for the future of driverless technology. The details of the single-fatality crash were made public in a June 30 blog by Tesla though they were reported immediately to NHTSA.
Planetizen
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released preliminary fatality estimates for 2015. Deaths jumped by 2,525, an increase of 7.7 percent over 2014. Pedestrians and bicyclists saw the biggest increases.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
New Mexico had the nation's highest pedestrian fatality rate in 2014. Alcohol was a factor in over half the pedestrian fatalities in New Mexico, while nationally it's a third. According to the Albuquerque PD, drunk pedestrians are primarily to blame.
Albuquerque Journal
Imagine if the federal government treated road safety as seriously as it does transit safety.
City Observatory
