Why Isn’t Traffic Reduction a Top Public Health Concern?

Earlier this week, Ken Archer at Greater Greater Washington posted this revealing graphic showing the relationship between the amount of driving we do in the United States and the death toll on our roads. Even as conventional traffic safety techniques have made driving less deadly, the rise in miles driven knocked back those improvements. It wasn't until our collective mileage flattened out that safety gains could be fully realized. Thousands of lives were saved when the growth in driving came to a halt.

So it should seem obvious that policy discussions of the risk posed by traffic should prioritize measures to reduce driving and encourage travel by other means, but, as Archer notes, public health authorities tend not to attack the problem that way:

One agency that has focused attention on traffic as a public safety threat, Archer notes, is the New York City Department of Health, which recently released a report indicating that the city's robust transit system is a big reason why traffic-related child deaths are relatively low -- one-third the national average.

Elsewhere on the Network: Cap'n Transit on transit funding kludges. (What's a kludge? You'll just have to follow the link.) M-Bike notes another milestone for Michigan's complete streets bill. And Straight Outta Suburbia critiques Los Angeles's minimum parking requirements.