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Critical Issues in Transportation for 2024 and Beyond (2024) / Chapter Skim
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Increasing Road Safety
Pages 21-24

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From page 21...
... Although fatalities had generally increased in ensuing years, deaths increased sharply again during the COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021 when fatalities increased despite reduced exposure to risk from declining VMT. The risk of death across the transportation system has been generally declining, but stark differences exist between passenger modes: "Over the last 10 years, the light-duty vehicle passenger death rate per 100,000,000 passenger miles was over 20 times higher than for buses, 17 times higher than for passenger trains, and 595 times higher than for scheduled airlines."53 Given these large differences in risk, and that fact that the vast majority of passenger travel in the United States is by personal vehicle, roughly 95 percent of deaths within the U.S.
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From page 22...
... Indirect evidence points to people driving at faster speeds, reduced use of safety belts, and increased drug and alcohol impairment.61 The COVID-19 pandemic's broader effects on mental health and social norms are also not fully understood. Society and individuals have been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and further research may help explain how and why.
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From page 23...
... . Design guidance is being developed to address the safety challenges of accommodating growing demand for active travel and the increasing forms of micromobility operating at different speeds.62 Separated lanes are widely advocated to reduce crash risk, but even users of separated lanes are exposed to motor vehicles at intersections, where most crashes occur.
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From page 24...
... Approaches such as Vision Zero,75 Safe System Design,76 and Complete Streets,77 which specifically address pedestrian and cyclist safety, deserve further examination and the development of data-driven standards, guidance, and applications. Further analysis of effective safety countermeasures applied in safer nations can inform policy choices in the United States.
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Key Terms

  • motor vehicle
  • crash avoidance
  • critical issues
  • traffic safety
  • avoidance technologies

  • vehicle fatality
  • traffic laws
  • fatality rates
  • percent lower
  • inform policy

  • separated lanes
  • alcohol impairment
  • bicyclist fatalities
  • increased weight
  • effective countermeasures

  • automatic braking
  • greatly reduced
  • avoidable deaths
  • considerable promise
  • safety challenges

  • motor vehicles
  • policy choices
  • increasing weight
  • vehicle travel
  • countermeasures applied

  • declining vmt
  • reduce engagement
  • urgent priority
  • risk exposure
  • widely advocated


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