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City Limits Index

City Limits
Guide Navigation
How Speed Kills

How Speed Kills

1

Crashes at higher speeds are more forceful and thus more likely to be fatal

2

Drivers traveling at higher speeds have a narrower field of vision

3

Drivers traveling at higher speeds travel further before they can react

4

Vehicles traveling at higher speeds have longer braking distances

 

High speed driving is particularly deadly where different types of road users share space and must interact frequently. In the US, fatal crashes are disproportionately clustered on a small group of high speed, auto-oriented streets, known as urban arterials. Between 2014 and 2018, urban arterials accounted for 29% of all fatal crashes in the US and half (49%) of all fatal crashes involving people biking or walking, despite making up only 6% of US roadways.

Urban arterials are typically signed for 35-45 miles per hour or higher, and are designed to support high speeds by featuring wide, highway-width lanes, sweeping turn radii, and few places to stop for people to cross. In many cities, urban arterials often lack basic protections for people outside of cars, such as sidewalks, even when bus stops are present or when the adjacent retail/commercial land uses encourage people to go there.

INCREASING VEHICLE SIZE COMPOUNDS THE DANGERS OF SPEED

In the US, the trend toward larger vehicles compounds the problems posed by excessive speeds. In 2017, 43% of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities involved an SUV, pickup truck or other light truck. In 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that pedestrians are two to three times more likely to die when hit by an SUV or pickup than by a passenger car.

Larger vehicles are more lethal than smaller ones for two main reasons: they are heavier, which increases the force of the impact when combined with speed; and they have a taller frame, which increases the likelihood that, if struck, a person (especially a child) will be pulled under the vehicle rather than pushed onto the hood.

The US trend toward larger, more dangerous vehicles is only growing. SUVs and pickup trucks outsold sedans more than three-to-one in 2019, and companies like Ford and Fiat Chrysler have announced that they will stop producing the vast majority of their sedans and compact cars.

TWO TAKES ON SAFETY-FIRST SYSTEMS APPROACHES

Vision Zero saves lives

Shifting an entire system from unsafe to safe is not just an aspiration. Many US cities have adopted safety-first programs, to varying degrees of success. Vision Zero, Injury Minimization, and Safe Systems programs affirm safety as the top transportation priority and the most effective way to eliminate traffic fatalities. Establishing a safety-first program:

> Signals a commitment to zero traffic deaths on city streets
> Asserts a belief that such a goal is attainable
> Accepts the role of officials, engineers, and planners in making streets safer

Safety-first programs recognize that although human error is inevitable, fatalities and severe injuries are preventable through street design and management choices. Successful safety programs systematically change the way streets operate to keep users safe, even when individuals make mistakes.

Sweden has created one of the most successful Vision Zero programs to date. In 1997, when Sweden adopted its Vision Zero program, there were more than 7 traffic deaths per 100,000 people. Today, despite more than 20 years of growth in traffic volume, this number has dropped to 3 people per 100,000.

US Aviation makes an impact

By nearly every measure, commercial aviation is the safest transportation mode in the United States. There were 3 fatal crashes between 2010 and 2017, compared to 17 fatal crashes in 1960 alone. These safety gains are the result of systemwide, interdisciplinary approaches to managing risk on the part of regulators and the commercial aviation industry.

In 1997, the White House Commission on Aviation Safety & Security and the National Civil Aviation Review Commission released reports calling for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and airlines to work together to reduce fatal accidents. In response, the FAA partnered with airlines to form the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), which uses incident data to discern safety priorities, deploys interdisciplinary teams to determine underlying crash causes, and applies interventions based on their findings.

In 2009, Continental Flight 3407 crashed, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. Pilot error and fatigue were the listed causes. By 2013, the FAA dramatically increased both training and rest requirements for pilots. Humans in the commercial aviation industry make mistakes. However, a systems approach to safety has resulted in substantive safety gains across the entire industry.

References