Ken Archer

Traffic reduction

Ken Archer is CTO of a software company in Tyson's Corner,VA, near Washington DC, and blogs for "Greater Greater Washington.", Aug 06, 10.

Tagged with health, children, vmt, traffic, young people, young adults, fatalities, reduction

Traffic is the leading cause of death among children worldwide and the leading cause of death among 1-34 year olds in the United States. So, why isn’t traffic considered the top threat to public health by the CDC, WHO and federal, state and local governments?

Why don’t officials approach traffic reduction with the same urgency that they approach, say, tobacco or malnutrition? The answer can be found in the CDC’s publications on injury prevention.

CDC’s research and prevention efforts target this serious public health problem. We focus on improving car and booster seat and seat belt use and reducing impaired driving, and helping groups at risk: child passengers, teen drivers, and older adult drivers.

The CDC, NIH and other agencies focus on traffic safety as the preventable cause of death, not traffic itself. WHO’s recommendations for addressing traffic fatalities are “speed, alcohol, seat-belts and child restraints, helmets, and visibility.”

The flaw in this exclusive focus on traffic safety is that increased safety only matters when vehicle miles traveled (VMT) are kept static or reduced. Instead, safety improvements that reduce fatalities per VMT have been offset by rising VMT.

Investments in traffic safety finally began to matter in 2004. According to the Brookings Institution, “driving, as measured by national VMT, began to plateau as far back as 2004 and dropped in 2007 for the first time since 1980,” obviously due to rising gas prices. As a result, the rate of traffic fatalities per 100,000 population finally began a much steeper decline in 2004 compared to earlier periods when safety improvements had been largely undermined by VMT increases.

Read the rest of the story.
Ben Fried responds at Streetsblog.

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