The high costs of car culture |
"The weather was clear and the roads were dry." This line in newspaper car-crash reports makes tragedy routine. Such matter-of-fact descriptions strip away grief and cost. One Arkansas example describes a driver who ran off the road, hit a culvert, overturned, and struck a tree. Conditions were "clear and dry." The driver died from his injuries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated the cost of crashes at $340 billion for 2019. When you include quality-of-life losses (pain, suffering, death), that cost might be as high as $1 trillion. U.S. deaths from all our wars, including the Revolutionary War, is about 1,356,575. Traffic fatalities from as far back as estimates go number 3.9 million.
According to an AI calculation, approximately 15-20 percent of all drivers have been or will be in a crash that results in a death or serious injury in their lifetime. A recent report from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety estimates that fatal crashes cost $417 billion per year. Arkansas, depending on the metric used, ranks as the third most dangerous state in which to drive, behind Mississippi and Wyoming. While historical trends for Arkansas and the nation show a dramatic reduction, the chances of being killed on highways remains a serious public health issue.
Why are we so casual about these........