National traffic deaths drop for 9th straight quarter

The good news about traffic deaths after the pandemic is continuing: Preliminary figures through the second quarter this year show deaths declined another 3.2%, the ninth straight quarter that deaths have gone down.

That’s a marked difference from the pandemic, when reduced traffic and lack of enforcement seemed to encourage motorists to engage in dangerous activities on empty roads such as speeding, distracted driving and impaired driving. That led to some of the highest increases in traffic deaths since federal agencies started keeping statistics in the 1970s after nearly a decade of regular declines.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg released the death figures Wednesday during a media briefing about the agency releasing $1 billion in grants under the Safe Streets and Roads for All program. Buttigieg said those grants and other measures taken by the department over the past two years are part of the reason for the decrease in traffic deaths that will be released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration on Thursday.

NHTSA estimates show 18,720 people died on the nation’s roadways through June. That’s 610 fewer than the first six months of 2023.

The grant program is part of the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan and part of USDOT’s Vision Zero effort to eliminate all traffic deaths. This round of funding will help pay for planning or implementation of 354 safety programs across the country, including $1.3 million for planning in Pittsburgh.

Buttigieg said the traffic death numbers are “the most heartbreaking” aspect of the department’s work but also the area for the “most opportunity” for improvements. Providing federal money directly to local communities is an important part of improving safety, he said.

“No one knows better what the local community needs are,” said Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. “The ideas don’t come from us, but the money has to.”

Steve Benjamin, President Joe Biden’s director of public engagement, agreed.

“It puts funding directly in the hands of people who need it to make their communities safer,” he said.

The money is designed to help underserved communities and rural areas, and so far about 43% of the funds have gone to communities with under 50,000 residents.

For example, Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the $13.2 million his community will receive will be used to reduce pedestrian deaths, where the city ranks third in the nation. Specifically, it will be used to close one street at a particularly dangerous intersection where three roads come together near a 15-acre park.

The city will contribute $3.2 million to the project.

In another project, rural Kalamazoo County, Michigan, will use $25 million to improve about 130 miles of roadways where 74 people have died over the past five years. Half of those deaths involved vehicles running off the road and crashing.

In Pittsburgh, the $1.3 million grant will be used to work with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and Carnegie Mellon University to develop safety programs, Olga George, press secretary for Mayor Ed Gainey, said in an email. The city joined the international Vision Zero Network in March.

With SPC, the city will develop safety programs as part of the agency’s countywide comprehensive safety action plan. That will include working with CMU to on two supplemental planning projects and three demonstration projects, including a Vision Zero ambassador program and two quick-build multimodal safety demonstration projects.

Other projects under development include a road safety audit to identify 10 high-injury corridors, a Complete Streets design manual with safety guidelines, and roadway reconfiguration on commercial streets in East Liberty and Downtown Pittsburgh.

Two other communities in Pennsylvania received implementation grants. State College will receive $15.9 million to make Calder Way a safer street for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians by reducing the speed limit, widening sidewalks, and eliminating curbs while Harrisburg’s $955,184 will help pay for retiming traffic signals at 25 intersections in underserved downtown neighborhoods.