Outdoorsy.com has an interesting article about the most dangerous and the safest cities to drive in. The most dangerous was no surprise to me because I drive in it every day. Here are the opening paragraphs:
Driving is one of the most common activities in everyday life, but it’s also one of the riskiest. According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, traffic crashes injured more than 2.7 million people and killed more than 36,000 in 2019. The latter figure makes motor vehicle accidents one of the most significant causes of death in the U.S., especially for young people.
And while drivers have been spending less time on the roads over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, preliminary data from the NHTSA suggests that 2020 saw an uptick in traffic fatalities. Over the first nine months of 2020, vehicle miles traveled were down 14.5 percent year-over-year in the United States, but fatalities reported were up 4.6 percent—to over 28,000—over the same span.
Fortunately, the overall trend in recent decades has been a reduction in fatalities, thanks to better vehicle safety and changes in public policy. Manufacturers have made vehicles safer with features like electronic stability control and automatic braking systems, which decrease the number of crashes, and improved airbags and collision technology, which make crashes less likely to be fatal. Meanwhile, states have sought to improve motorist safety with stricter laws on matters like seatbelts and the use of mobile devices while driving. Collectively, these changes have helped push the total number of motor vehicle fatalities down by more than 15 percent since 2005. When calculated relative to the U.S. population, motor fatalities are down 25 percent over the same span.
