Traffic Fatalities

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post comparing the safety of inner suburbs and outer suburbs. (See http://www.planetizen.com/node/56468 ) My post showed that (in least in the metropolitan areas I looked at) inner suburbs were safer than outer suburbs, because violent deaths from murder and traffic combined were lower in the former.

July 15, 2012 - Michael Lewyn

As cycling expands rapidly in the second-most dense city in America, the infrastructure to support this growth has not kept up, inflaming tensions over the ownership of public space, reports Maria L. La Ganga

June 18, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

Sarah Goodyear reports on the Windy City's ambitious plan to eliminate all traffic fatalities in the city within 10 years.

May 29, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

William Lucy of the University of Virginia has written extensively on the question of whether outer suburbs are safer than cities or inner suburbs; he argues, based on traffic fatality data, that outer suburbs are certainly less safe than inner suburbs, and maybe even less safe than cities. (1)  However, Lucy’s analysis is not particularly fine-grained: it analyzes data county-by-county, rather than town-by-town. What’s wrong with this?  Often, suburban cities within a county are quite diverse: some share the characteristics of inner suburbs (e.g. some public transit) while others look more like exurbs.  So I wondered whether there is any significant 'safety gap" between inner and outer suburbs. 

April 29, 2012 - Michael Lewyn

Sarah Goodyear offers a brief history of urban development in postwar Europe, and tells of just how close the bicycle capitals of the West came to putting cars before people.

April 28, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Atlantic Cities offers a review of ten of the worst urban transportation failures to take place in American cities in 2011.

December 30, 2011 - Atlantic Cities

The FHWA says that 40% of all traffic accidents happen at intersections, and many of those are caused by left turns. A new type of intersection called the "diverging diamond" takes left turns out of the picture.

October 12, 2011 - Slate

A new study of federal data on fatalities per 100,000 people and per 100 million miles driven finds significant differences in urban and rural roads.

January 27, 2011 - USA Today

Traffic deaths are down almost 10% for last year- in fact, they haven't been this low since 1950. Why?

September 9, 2010 - CNN-Money

Blueprint America reports from suburban Atlanta, where getting to the other side of the road is nothing to take for granted.

July 28, 2010 - PBS - Blueprint America

A preliminary count of all road fatalities in 2009 shows a record low figure of 33,963; almost 9% lower than 2008. The final count is due this summer. While the declining VMT due to a depressed economy was a major factor, the rate declined as well.

March 28, 2010 - The New York Times - Wheels

The Infrastructurist examines a new infographic published by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of their Global Status Report.

March 13, 2010 - The Infrastructurist

New Orleans is experiencing a crime wave. High murder rates in the first two months of 2007 have made national attention. Anderson Cooper of CNN has been following this story. So far this year he has devoted two hour-long shows to this topic. I live in central New Orleans and my biggest complaint about the city is the high crime rate. I don’t think our city will recover if we fail to address this most serious issue. Crime makes you ask yourself – should I move to the suburbs where it’s safer and commute? But being a transportation planner, I can’t help but follow-up that question with – If I spend a lot more time driving will my exposure to dieing in a car accident increase? So which is worse - murder or traffic fatalities?

February 27, 2007 - John Renne