Editor's note: the following is an open letter from a coalition of organizations working to end car crash deaths and serious injuries in America. It is republished with permission.
To the Incoming Trump Administration, the New U.S. Congress, and Federal, State and Local American Transportation Officials:
Our organizations are alarmed at the national roadway safety crisis in America. Traffic crashes are a leading cause of preventable death in our country, killing almost 41,000 Americans in 2023.
The status quo is particularly dire for people walking and biking: More than 7,500 people died walking on U.S. roads in 2022, a 40-year high, while deaths of people bicycling that year rose to the highest number ever recorded. Although figures have decreased marginally in the last year, America still faces alarming trends that are resulting in needless death and injury to hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.
The economic toll of this crisis is also alarming: Traffic injuries and deaths in 2022 caused an astounding $465 billion in economic costs and $1.4 trillion in quality-of-life costs, according to the American Traffic Services Association.
Every one of these crashes involves a mother, father, brother, sister or child. Every American has a loved one or knows someone who has been killed or seriously injured in a traffic crash.
On World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, November 17, 2024, our organizations ask you to honor these victims -- and commit to delivering cost-effective, safe transportation choices to the American people.
The reasons for the roadway safety crisis are clear: Americans are more distracted than ever due to their phones; our cars are bigger, heavier and faster than ever; and we drive on roads designed decades ago that emphasize speed over safety. Inexplicably, far too often, Americans drive while drunk or high — or both. All these are problems with knowable solutions.
In our view, the crisis of preventable traffic deaths and injuries demands greater attention, and that is why our organizations are speaking out — and acting.
On World Day of Remembrance, communities across the country will gather with friends, family, and elected officials to raise awareness and promote existing, life-saving strategies that can alleviate this national crisis. The Ride for Your Life 2024, in Washington, D.C. — organized to memorialize Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, a mother and U.S. diplomat killed in 2022, just after she had been evacuated for her safety from Ukraine, a war zone — is one such event.
On this day, we are emphasizing that just as we know the top factors causing roadway deaths, we also have the solutions to stem the traffic safety crisis. The key now is leadership – to act on this knowledge and put proven, life-saving tools in place.
Our organizations support the Safe System approach and its focus on safer roads, speeds, vehicles, drivers, and post-crash care. Please consider this non-exhaustive list of recommendations for the kind of actions that will save lives:
- Fix our roads. Design has a huge impact on our driving behavior. Proven safety measures like sidewalks, protected bike lanes, medians, and islands both calm traffic and create safe spaces for the public. We also urge Congress to pass the Sarah Langenkamp Active Transportation Safety Act (S3964/HR 1668), which gives states the flexibility in using Federal Highway Safety Program funds to help every community, especially those in rural America, afford life-saving biking and walking infrastructure.
- Make vehicles safer. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration will require automatic emergency braking (AEB) that will stop a car for people walking in 2029. It needs to be expanded to include those riding bicycles. Other technologies also hold promise: lane departure warning, blind spot detection, traffic sign recognition and other systems will also revolutionize the safety of both cars and trucks. And side under-ride guards could keep cars, cyclists and people from being trapped underneath the carriages of trucks, a problem that has existed for a century. Such simple, targeted upgrades offer real, cost-effective solutions to help protect everyone without heavy-handed regulation.
- Give communities the freedom to set speed limits for safety. Simply put, speed kills. Our communities have the tools and know-how to prevent dangerous speeds. State legislatures are increasingly allowing local control to set speed limits and design roads based on safety priorities, which will save lives. We urge public agencies to purchase vehicles with intelligent speed assistance (ISA) to ensure publicly owned vehicles keep to speed limits. They could also require ISA in cars for the worst-of-the-worst repeat speeding offenders. And, of course, design to encourage careful driving at safe speeds.
- Improve driver behavior. Unsafe and reckless driver behavior is also part of the problem. States should include bike and pedestrian safety modules in driver education courses, require that those convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol use alcohol ignition “interlocks” to prevent a driver from starting a vehicle until they take a breath alcohol test, and teach more about bicycling and traffic safety in schools to promote safe behavior. Overall, we must change the culture in which we consistently sacrifice safety at the altar of speed on America’s roads.
- Improve post-crash care. We know that after a crash, seconds matter, and a prepared and well-funded emergency response system can save lives, especially in rural areas with longer distances to medical services.
These are just a few examples of the many common sense things we can do to save lives. There are many more. Most of them require no new federal funding. All of them are the kind of measures that are proven to reduce roadway deaths in America.
As President Trump assembles his new administration, we urge officials to redouble their efforts to address America’s road safety crisis. This is no time to turn our back on progress.
All Americans value life. All Americans use our roads. Let’s work together to ensure they don’t die while doing so.
Sincerely,
Ride for Your Life 2024
Families for Safe Streets
The League of American Bicyclists
PeopleForBikes
Trek Bicycles
Vision Zero Network
The Washington Area Bicyclist Association
It Could Be Me
America Walks
