Why Are So Many More Pedestrians Dying in the U.S.?

from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. tavernes and this is the. [Music]. daily a puzzling new pattern has taken. hold on American roads pedestrian. traffic deaths which had been on the. decline for years have. skyrocketed today my colleague Emily. badger on her investigation into. why.

it's Thursday January. [Music]. 4th so Emily you spent months. investigating a very surprising Trend. and that is pedestrian deaths after. Decades of declines are now Rising so we. wanted to talk to you about that. investigation and and really look. closely at this question of why but.

before we get there tell me how you came. to this story where'd you begin so I. write about Urban policy for the Times. which means I write about Transportation. among other things and sort of how. people use it and and how we get around. and how important it is to our lives and. this one very apparent pattern keeps. coming up over and over again which is. that there has been this traffic safety. crisis in America affecting in. particular pedestrians you know for. years and years throughout the 80s the.

'90s the early 2000s roads in America. were becoming safer and safer for. pedestrians and then something changes. around 2009 all of a sudden roads start. to become more dangerous year over-ear. to the point where more than 3,000. additional pedestrians died in 2021. compared to 2009 and it's this. incredible mystery for a number of. reasons one of them is that we don't see. anything like this in other. industrialized countries you know we. don't see pedestrian deaths Rising if.

anything they're falling in other. countries so in this mystery you know. there's something particular to the. United States going on there's something. that starts around 2009 going on and. figuring out exactly what that is is not. incredibly obvious even Transportation. researchers and regulators and Engineers. don't entirely know what's going on here. so Emily what did you do how did you try. to solve this mystery in your reporting. so I worked on this project alongside a. colleague of mine Ben blad he spent a.

lot of time looking at Federal fatality. data in the United States the federal. government records a lot of data every. time someone dies on American roadways. you know we know about what kind of car. was involved in the Collision how old. was the driver how old was the person. who was killed what time of day did this. happen and Ben discovers looking through. this data so many of these deaths that. are happening among pedestrians in the. United States are happening at night and. in fact the vast vast majority of the.

rise in pedestrian fatalities in America. that starts around 2009 is occurring. when it's dark out after Sunset so. you're saying the overall increase is. entirely because of these nighttime. deaths that is what's driving the change. about 85% of the rise in pedestrian. fatalities in America since 2009 is. entirely attributable to pedestrians. dying in the darkness and so Ben and I. set off to try to solve this incredibly. difficult puzzle I mean it is basically.

like a three-sided Rubik's Cube where. we're trying to find answers that fit. three different criteria what is. something that starts around 2009 what. is something that is particular to the. United States that doesn't show up in. other countries and what is something. that would explain effects that are. worse at night than during the daytime. okay so let's dig into that what did you. start to find so then and I go out and. we start collecting lots of very. different theories about what could be. contributing to this problem and let's.

start with maybe the most obvious one. smartphones this timeline lines up. fairly well with the rise of the. smartphone in America right Apple. introduces the iPhone in 2007 it very. rapidly becomes ubiquitous and. smartphones introduce new kinds of. distraction into cars and they're also. becoming ubiquitous at the same time is. there is just this General proliferation. of Technology inside of vehicles you. know it used to just that you had four.

or five dials that you could manipulate. by touch that you had memorized you know. this is the one that controls. temperature and this is the one that. controls the radio and you didn't have. to look at them and now you have to do. five different touch screens on five. different buttons to try to figure out. how to turn the heat up yeah and you. know effectively we have something like. a smartphone RIT large attached to the. inside of the car in addition to the one. in your hand and so that's potentially. introducing distraction as well but. other countries have smartphones and. have stuff on the dashboard like that. too so why would it be different in the.

US right so so then we have to start. thinking about it a little bit harder. and it's like is there something about. smartphones that suggests that they're. being used differently by drivers in. America than in other parts of the world. and we encounter some evidence that I. think that this is true and this appears. in some data that tracks how drivers. actually use their phones whether or not. they're picking them up touching them. tapping them moving around while they're. in moving cars and it appears that. American drivers are doing this more.

than they are in other countries but. there's also sort of one other factor. and this is probably my favorite thing. that I learned in the course of. reporting on this which is that if you. think about the kinds of cars that we. drive in America overwhelmingly almost. all of us drive automatic transmission. vehicles and these are cars that require. kind of one hand to drive on the. steering wheel and the second hand for. much of your time many people can do. other things with it including picking. up a smartphone but this is not true in.

many pure countries that we would. compare the United States to you know in. most of Europe manual transmissions are. far far far more common and a manual. transmission vehicle is a vehicle that. takes two hands to drive so even if. there weren't cultural differences and. expectations around whether or not it's. okay to use your smartphone while you're. driving you literally cannot use your. smartphone while you're driving as much. in many parts of the world where. everyone is driving a stick shift right. because physically it's pretty difficult. yeah and just to put this in perspective.

the share of cars sold in America this. year that have a stick shift is about 1%. wow the share of cars on the road in. Europe that have a stick shift is 70 to. 75% so the V majority of cars on the. road in Europe are stick shifts the vast. majority of them in America are not. interesting okay so that's a big and. very compelling Theory but what about. the nighttime question though Emily I. mean do most people use their phones. distracted when they're behind the wheel.

actually at night yeah so so this is. another part of the puzzle that we have. to think a little bit harder about it's. not like people are only using them once. the sun sets but we have reason to think. that people use them more in the. nighttime and you know we came across. some data from a company that actually. tracks how people are touching and. manipulating their phones while they're. driving and their data suggests that. distracted driving is most common in the. evening time interesting why I mean I.

think that's sort of consistent with the. idea that you know you get off of work. and now is when you're coordinating with. your significant other about who's going. to pick up the kids or go to the grocery. store or with your friends who you're. making plans to meet at a bar there's. sort of social activity and coordination. and communication and another theory. that someone gave me was that this is. also when a lot of people particularly. in the United States are responding to. after hours work messages we have this. kind of uniquely American always on work.

culture that says that like when your. workday ends you're still responsible. for paying attention to work and. responding to things and this is a small. thing I don't want to suggest that like. you know this is the overarching thing. that explains all of this but it's a. small cultural thing that is different. in the United States from other. countries that we would compare. ourselves to right okay so phone use. checks a lot of these boxes right. America's different in this way there's. a nighttime reason for it and it. coincides with the year that the trend. really took off 2009 what what else did. you find in your quest to solve this.

mystery so I think another big obvious. thing that happens over the same time. period is that American cars are getting. bigger and these bigger cars have higher. hoods and a higher Hood smashes into a. pedestrian not at the legs but at the. chest at the Torso at the head in these. more deadly pain points and it's also. the case that bigger heavier cars break. slower so if someone driving one of. these cars sees a pedestrian getting. ready to cross the street and they hit. the brakes that car may still collide.

with that pedestrian and researchers. will tell you that a large part of the. reason why the overall fatality rates in. the United States are so much higher. than they are in other countries has to. do among other things with the fact that. the vehicles that we drive here are so. big but I guess I sort of thought Emily. that American cars had always been big I. mean I remember going to Europe for the. first time and thinking all the cars. there look like Little Sneakers or. skateboards or something you know that. American cars were so much bigger. forever yeah so if we come back to our.

three-sided Rubik's Cube like this is. one Element where cars getting bigger. doesn't quite fit our puzzle it's part. of the picture but it's probably not the. central most important Theory involved. here because this is not something that. starts in 2009 I mean Americans were. driving SUVs back in the 90s and it's. also clear to us when we look at this. Federal fatality data you know smaller. cars sedans they are killing more. pedestrians today than they did 15 years. ago so it's not just that there are. fewer smaller cars even smaller cars are.

killing more pedestrians now than they. used to and if we really believed it was. the case that most of this change over. the last 15 years is driven by cars. getting bigger then we would think that. fatalities would be rising during the. daytime too right right like a Ford 150. peup truck is just as deadly at noon as. it is at 10: p.m. right so now we have. to start thinking about if the cars. themselves don't explain this puzzle if. the behavior of drivers alone can't. explain all of this puzzle now Ben and I. are starting to what is happening.

outside of vehicles what's happening in. the country around cars that's. contributing to this. problem we'll be right. back okay so Emily you and Ben keep. going you look beyond the car beyond the. driver into the world outside what do. you find yeah so there may be other. things happening in the country over. this time that would mean that more.

pedestrians are in situations where they. might be exposed to a deadly crash so. these are the sort of exposure theories. okay so explain that and give me an. example yeah so one Theory points to. this kind of broader demographic trend. Americans have been moving toward sunb. belt parts of the country you know. toward warmer parts of the country. metropolitan areas in Texas in Florida. and these are places that happen to have. historically. very bad pedestrian safety records and.

why is that so these are parts of the. country that developed much more. recently than New York City Philadelphia. Chicago they developed in the auto age. after cars became ubiquitous and they're. fundamentally built around cars they. don't have strong Transit networks they. don't have a lot of pedestrian. infrastructure they're built around the. assumption that everyone drives. everywhere they go and maybe there are. very few crosswalks or stop lights there. are a lot of high-speed arterial roads. these are these really wide high-speed.

roads that still occasionally have stop. lights in the middle of them and these. are the kind of place where if you're a. pedestrian and you want to cross the. street maybe you have to walk half a. mile up the road to be able to do that. you know that type of development is. extremely common in these parts of the. country where people have increasingly. been moving okay so in other words. exposure to danger is higher in a place. that's built around the car not the. walking person and as more people move. to places like this and the Sun Belt is. one of those places then more people are.

actually exposed to that danger that's. the theory and just to give you an. example Florida especially really pops. out in this data and over this time. period that we've been talking about. since 2009 pedestrian deaths there are. up by about 70% wow 70% yeah and you. know that's not totally surprising when. you think about the fact that to come. back again to the parts of the country. that have really been booming in. population I'm thinking of places like. Tampa Orlando Jacksonville Daytona Beach. like the these are places that rank in.

the top 10 of the most dangerous for. pedestrian safety at the same time right. but you know these are also places that. I'm sure you know as a demographics. reporter and I know as a former one are. big for retirees so does aging have to. do with the trend at all yeah this is. another demographic story that's. happening in the background in America. over this time period that we're talking. about I mean the American population is. just getting older but what we see here. is actually that it's not older people. who are really driving this trend it's. more working age people it's people you.

know aged 18 to 64 or so okay so what. else are you seeing Emily so another big. shift that's happening in many American. cities over part of this time is that. homelessness is rising and with. homelessness we are literally talking. about extremely vulnerable people living. adjacent to roads living in Highway. interchanges in underpasses of major. roads and this is a theory that fits. another part of our puzzle in that these. are people who are present on roads at.

night but homelessness in America really. sort of starts to rise in many cities. around 2016 or so so this isn't a story. that begins way back in 2009 or that has. some abrupt sort of change in trajectory. around that time period but it is very. clear in recent data just over the last. few years that very large numbers of. pedestrians who are killed in some. cities have been homeless you know just. to give you one example in Los Angeles. when I look at their pedestrian fatality. they there it looks like about 30% of.

their deaths recently have been among. homeless people wow so that means that. this has to be at least part of what's. going on here so Emily you're talking. about people being on dangerous roads at. times when it's dark out and you know I. remember when I was a national reporter. I started to notice that lowincome. people were actually moving out of. expensive inner cities into much less. expensive suburbs and that many of those. people I was interviewing and I was. going to report on couldn't afford cars. and they'd actually be walking down the.

street early in the morning when it's. dark out to go to work and the street. wouldn't be just a little country road. it would be a major highway is that part. of what's going on here too I think that. is absolutely got to be part of the. story as well I mean here what we're. talking about is this National trend of. the suburbanization of poverty lower. income people moving into Suburban. environments which very similar to the. sunb Belt environments we were just. talking about these are places that have. very do crosswalks they often have no.

sidewalks at all and we're talking about. people moving into those environments. who you know they may be doing shift. work working odd hours they may be. relying on buses that come infrequently. and that is potentially increasing. exposure as well of people who are. likely to be out on the most dangerous. roads in circumstances where they may be. hit by a car in Portland Oregon for. example there are these notoriously. dangerous arterial roads on the Eastern. side of the city where historically. pedestrian infrastructure has been.

really lacking and over the last decade. or so this is where people who have been. priced out of more expensive. neighborhoods in Portland have been. moving to and there's research that sort. of suggests that this kind of pattern. that I've just described in Portland is. apparent more nationally and it appears. as if pedestrian fatalities are actually. declining in downtowns and where they're. Rising is in Suburban environments like. the one I've just described so this. suggests actually that the people who. are being killed are probably some of. the most vulnerable in American society.

low-income people walking to work along. a highway in the middle of the night. going to a shift can't afford a car and. homeless people yeah I think that's. absolutely true I mean the the federal. fatality data that we're looking at here. doesn't tell us for instance what's the. income of the person who died but. there's other research that suggests. that these kind of fatality hotspots. these most dangerous roads are. disproportionately occurring in. low-income neighborhoods and that means. that this problem Falls the heaviest on. the most disadvantaged people Emily.

looking back on everything that you. found would you say that you've solved. the mystery I don't think we solved the. mystery in the sense that we didn't. uncover one obvious thing that explains. all of this problem I think the best. possible explanation is that multiple. things have been happening over the same. time and those things are interacting. with each other they're amplifying each. other Darkness makes all of them worse. and I think where Ben and I really land. in thinking about this is that we have. this fundamentally risky Transportation.

infrastructure in the United States you. know we had this very clear example of. this during the pandemic where many. fewer people were driving there were far. fewer cars on the road this was true all. over the world and in most countries. fatalities declined because fewer people. were on the road and you would think. that the same thing would have happened. in the United States but it didn't the. opposite happened fewer people were. driving and still more people were dying. more people were dying in all kinds of. traffic fatalities including pedestrians. why I think that gets back to the same.

sort of underlying idea here you know. during the pandemic you take a lot of. the cars off the road you take a lot of. the people away from the picture and you. can see really Crystal Clear what's left. it's this transportation system that. we've built that is designed for Speed. and all of a sudden when there were. fewer cars on the road the drivers who. remained felt very comfortable driving. fast driving recklessly and that had. these deadly consequences H interesting. so what is the that mean Emily what do. you take away from that I mean I think.

this tells us that our system is not. designed to protect pedestrians it's not. designed to prioritize safety and. thinking about this this story really. touched a nerve with a lot of our. readers I mean I heard from hundreds of. them and many of them had their own. theories which are things that we didn't. even touch on here but you know some of. them also told me I think it's about. pedestrian Behavior pedestrians don't. look both ways before crossing the. street like they used to in the olden. days you know they no longer wear light.

colors at night they're looking down at. their phones and they're bringing this. risk on themselves and I think the. reality is that if we look at other. countries you know they are producing. much safer outcomes and they're not. doing it by taking pedestrian cell. phones away or making pedestrians wear. reflective gear or spending a lot of. money on public service campaigns that. are teaching pedestrians how to avoid. being hit by cars they're doing it by. fundamentally investing in how they. design safe roads and making a. fundamental commitment in their laws and.

in their regulations to prioritizing. safety over cars traveling as fast as. possible and what does that mean about. the US and what's happening here so what. that means here is that if we want to. see fewer pedestrian fatalities we need. to do those same. things we need to be changing our roads. to make them safer you know we need to. be telling drivers that if you're. running through red lights the penalties. for that are real that we care about. safety. but in order for us to do those kinds of.

things you know that requires a big. cultural change to how we have thought. about and designed and used roadways in. America for. decades Emily thank you thanks. [Music]. Sabrina we'll be right. back here's what else you should know. today. on Wednesday more than a 100 people died.

in Iran in a pair of explosions near the. tomb of kasum sulimani Iran's former. security Chief the blasts which left. hundreds more wounded happened on the. 4-year aniversary of suliman's death in. an American drone strike Iran's supreme. leader Ayatollah Ali hamei issued a. statement blaming the attack on Iran's. quote malicious and criminal enemies but. stopped short of naming any group or.

country today's episode was produced by. MOJ zi and Clare tennis gter it was. edited by John katum contains original. music by Diane Wong and was engineered. by Alyssa Moxley our theme music is by. Jim runberg and Ben Lanser of. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Sabrina tavernes see you.

[Music]. tomorrow.