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Drivers 15 to 20 years old—many of whom were novice drivers—represented 8.5 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes but only 5.1 percent of all licensed drivers in 2020. Graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws are the most effective behavioral countermeasure for young drivers. However, although an increasing proportion of young people are delaying licensure until […]
Transportation has historically not been a variable of interest in studying homelessness. Transportation planning has often failed to meet the needs of many low-income populations, including people experiencing homelessness (PEH), those who have been justice-involved, and other environmental justice (EJ) populations. PEH frequently rely on public transit systems and facilities as more than a mode […]
Distracted driving is a major contributor to crashes. In 2020, there were 3,142 lives lost to crashes involving distracted driving (Stewart, 2022). Countermeasures that aim to reduce distracted driving exist, such as laws, enforcement campaigns, outreach, and programs for adult and teen drivers (Venkatraman et al., 2021). However, these typically target the drivers themselves; few […]
The COVID-19 pandemic, mitigation efforts such as stay-at-home orders, and ensuing trends such as the rise in working from home, have had substantial impacts on traffic. In March, NHTSA reported that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) decreased 11% from 2019 to 2020, while police-reported crashes decreased 22%. However, fatalities per 100 million VMT increased 21% from […]
The deployment of autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies may hold health and safety benefits for drivers across the driving lifespan (>18 years of age). However, up until now, the perceptions of such drivers about AVs have not been examined with a combined approach of using surveys and pre- and post-exposure to the actual technology. Lived experiences […]
For this fact sheet, urban boundaries are determined by the State highway departments and approved by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the areas outside of those boundaries are described as rural. The State highway departments use the boundaries decided by the Census Bureau. Read the full study here.
The COVID-19 pandemic, mitigation efforts such as stay-at-home orders, and ensuing trends such as the rise in working from home, have had substantial impacts on traffic. In March, NHTSA reported that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) decreased 11% from 2019 to 2020, while police-reported crashes decreased 22%. However, fatalities per 100 million VMT increased 21% from […]
Prior to 2015, there were more traffic fatalities in rural areas than in urban areas in the U.S.; however, between 2010 and 2019, fatalities in urban areas increased by 34%, while those in rural areas decreased by 10%. Consequently, in 2019, there were 19,595 traffic fatalities in urban areas compared to 16,340 fatalities in rural […]
Occupant protection discussed in this fact sheet includes seat belts, car seats for those under 5, and frontal air bags in passenger vehicles. Passenger vehicles consist of passenger cars and light trucks (pickups, SUVs, and vans) with gross vehicle weight ratings (GVWRs) of 10,000 pounds or less. Vehicle occupants include drivers and passengers. Read the […]
In the context of pedestrian and bicyclist safety, the theory of Jacobsen’s 2003 “ Safety in Numbers” (SIN) posits an inverse relationship between the extent of walking and bicycling and the probability of motorist collisions with pedestrians and bicyclists. A literature review was conducted to summarize the state of research on SIN and identify potential […]
