Safer Roads Save Lives

In 2020, car crashes nationwide killed 38,824 people, the highest number since 2007. When the numbers get this big, we start to lose a sense of scale, but that’s roughly the population of Oregon City. Think about that, a whole city’s worth of people were killed. And while some accidents are caused by the environment, most are avoidable. By educating ourselves on an individual and societal level we can reduce the number of fatal accidents.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA), 45% of fatal crashes involved at least one of the drivers being drunk, speeding, or not wearing a seatbelt. Educating people about the risks associated with these types of unsafe behaviors could help drastically reduce the number of crashes, especially fatal ones. (Side note: Ironically, it’s been shown that teaching people information about the dangers of driving while they’re driving makes them more prone to accidents, as it turns out your own mortality is pretty distracting.)

Everyone’s heard at some point that they shouldn’t drink and drive, as alcohol impairs your eyesight, reasoning and reaction time – all of which are critical for driving safely. But learning specifics like we did in my health class last year, such as the standard drink and how long it takes for your liver to remove it, could help a lot. (It takes 1 hour, in case you were wondering.) After all, without specific safety instructions you can’t really rely on people to use their better judgment when the issue itself is their impaired judgment.

While traffic accidents – especially fatal ones – have an obvious emotional cost, they also have a financial one. For 2019, the NHTSA reported that motor vehicle crashes cost the country approximately 340 billion dollars that year, ranging from property damage to medical costs to lost productivity caused by congestion. The point being that investments by the government into decreasing the number of crashes on our roadways would have short-term return on investment. It seems obvious, then, that we should further prioritize traffic safety through structural change.

Although we’ve been focusing on the driver’s responsibility to drive safely so far, street design plays a large role as well, and can be used to influence people’s behavior. Currently people take the driver’s test once, and – except for in a few specific situations – don’t have to take it again. I believe we should consider including a written test as part of the driver’s license renewal process. Furthermore, people should at least be given an opportunity to formally learn the state specific laws after moving.

Roads are often made with high visibility and with a wide enough “error margin” to the lanes that one could veer off course to a certain extent without hitting anything. The trouble is that this can make residential roads look a lot like a highway, allowing drivers to feel comfortable going at higher speeds. Narrowing streets, making corners sharper turns and adding tree cover can all cause people to drive more cautiously, reducing the number of fatal crashes.

I should mention why slowing down cars on residential streets, even just by a little, is so important. Pedestrians hit by a car going 20 miles per hour survive 9 out of 10 times. That goes down to 5 out of 10 at 30 mph, and as few as 1 out of 10 at 40 mph. Slowing down an amount that honestly may be inconsequential to the driver could save someone’s life. Additionally, braking distance has an exponential relationship to speed; meaning that doubling your speed quadruples your braking distance. This makes lower speeds all the more critical in reducing the number of collisions where people live.

I’ve never been in a significant crash myself, but there was a collision at the intersection in front of my house several years ago. None of us saw it happen, but we heard the sound of a car skidding followed by an impact and ran to look out the window. Neither of the drivers seemed to be badly hurt, as they both were able to get out of their cars and yell at each other immediately after. I don’t know who was at fault, but I’m fairly certain that was something they disagreed on. Thinking back, that really illustrates to me how unexpectedly these things can happen. I think my takeaway from that day would be to go slow enough to avoid unexpected obstacles, especially on residential streets.

We shouldn’t accept these absurdly high death rates on our roads. Through education, systematic changes, and technological advances we can save lives.