Safety
Basics
AAA’s Latest Road Safety Report Ignores the Obvious: We Should Be Driving Less
The number of annual traffic deaths in America is heading in the wrong direction, climbing back above the 40,000 mark. To reverse this trend, the AAA Foundation for Road Safety this week released a report that prioritizes six road design changes it says would do the most to reduce the death toll. There's just one problem: AAA's report doesn't consider the idea that, to save lives, we should be driving less.
May 3, 2017
How a Toledo Mom Stopped a Destructive Road Widening
Dana Dunbar was new to transportation policy and activism. But that didn't stop her from waging a successful grassroots campaign against a road widening in her neighborhood.
March 27, 2017
To Make Streets Safer, Seattle May Get Rid of Traffic Signals
Signalized intersections carry special risks. Drivers often accelerate during the yellow phase to "beat the light," for instance, leading to high-speed crashes. Federal officials warn that improperly placed signals can "significantly increase collisions." So Seattle is reviewing 10 intersections to see if traffic signals should be replaced with stop signs.
February 9, 2017
America Has a Terrible Traffic Safety Record Because We Drive Too Much
Even though the U.S. traffic fatality rate per mile driven has fallen by two-thirds in the last 50 years, America today still has the deadliest road system per capita in the developed world. Much of the improvement from safer driving and better emergency care has been wiped out by increases in total traffic.
September 8, 2016
Portland Wants to Rethink Speed Limits By Factoring in Walkers and Bikers
For cities trying to get a handle on traffic fatalities, dangerous motor vehicle speeds are an enormous problem. Once drivers exceed 20 mph, the chances that someone outside the vehicle will survive a collision plummet.
August 25, 2016
Retired Fire Chief: Make American Firetrucks Fit City Streets, Not Vice Versa
It's a sad irony that fire departments, while essential to public safety, are often a major obstacle to safer streets in American cities.
March 22, 2016
Feds Propose Major Rule Changes to Eliminate Barriers to Safer Streets
Applying highway design standards to city streets has been a disaster for urban neighborhoods. The same things that make highways safer for driving at 65 mph -- wide lanes, "clear zones" running alongside the road that have no trees or other "obstacles" -- make surface streets dangerous and dreadful for walking, killing street life.
October 8, 2015
What If Traffic Engineers Were Held to Safety Standards Like Carmakers?
It's been a rough few days for auto makers.
September 23, 2015
The Appalling Rollback of Truck Safety Provisions in the DRIVE Act
A battle is brewing over the Senate transportation bill’s approach to truck safety. Though large trucks are involved in crashes that kill nearly 4,000 people a year -- a number that has grown by 17 percent over the past five years -- the DRIVE Act actually rolls back what few protections exist.
August 28, 2015
Compelling Evidence That Wider Lanes Make City Streets More Dangerous
The "forgiving highway" approach to traffic engineering holds that wider is safer when it comes to street design. After decades of adherence to these standards, American cities are now criss-crossed by streets with 12-foot wide lanes. As Walkable City author Jeff Speck argued in CityLab last year, this is actually terrible for public safety and the pedestrian environment.
May 27, 2015