Days after new NHTSA figures showed road fatalities hitting a 16-year high, Jeffrey Michael pointed to the nation’s failure and potential fixes.
of federal programs to influence safety and cites a gradual reduction in road deaths over 50 years. But in an interview with The Washington Post — days
A: Obviously, I agree with all of that. The constructive way of reacting to the numbers is to use this moment, this recognition, to draw attention to the scale of this problem and to commit to doing something about it. This is an issue for which answers are known. It requires joint commitment and, frankly, a willingness to make concessions to reduce the scale of this problem, and to potentially eliminate the problem.
Q: Yonah Freemark, a transportation analyst at the Urban Institute, noted that in 1994, France and the United States had the same death rate. But as of 2020, Americans were more than three times more likely to die on the road. Why did theirs come down so quickly in comparison?A: It comes down to this issue of concessions. In France, there was a nationwide aggressive speed program. And they cut speeds significantly across the country, largely through the use of automated enforcement. In the U.S.
Q: Pedestrian deaths totaled 7,485 last year, a 40-year high, according to estimates from the Governors Highway Safety Association. How much of that is due to speed?A: Speed is a big part of it. It’s also partly due to a society that’s changing, in a positive direction. There’s increasing population and people are out walking more. There’s an increase in bicycling, particularly during the pandemic. This is what we want to see.