Series Overview: How Safe Are Our Roads?
How Safe Are Our Roads?
This week, more than 33 million Americans will drive at least 50 miles to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving. The great majority will return home safely.
But for too many families, this holiday will bring tragedy. Last year, during the four-day Thanksgiving driving period, nearly 400 people were killed in traffic accidents in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For all of 2008, more than 37,000 people were killed in car crashes.
Throughout this week, National Public Radio will be airing stories and hosting conversations about highway safety. We'll explore the many ways that safety has been improved through better vehicle technology, smarter road designs, and reformed behaviors, such as reduced drunken driving.
The changes have yielded dramatic results: In 1969, the driving-related fatality rate in this country was 5 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. The current rate is about 1.27 deaths.
But fatalities are still high because of the many dangers that remain, especially on rural roads where trucks, RVs and passenger cars frequently collide. And new risks are emerging as more and more drivers look away from the road to send text messages. At the same time, tens of millions of aging baby boomers are entering the years when driving skills will be declining significantly.
In coming decades, will we see more advances in safety because of new technologies and laws? Or will we see fatality rates start to rise again?
Here are some of the stories we will be covering:
Monday, Nov. 23
Vehicle Technology
The number of people killed on the nation's highways last year hit its lowest level since John F. Kennedy was president. Correspondent Brian Naylor visits the crash hall at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Vehicle Research Center to learn about the latest vehicle safety innovations.
Federal Role In Safety
Over the years, Congress has played a major role in forcing the safer design of cars. Lawmakers have mandated seat belts and air bags. They spent billions to improve highways. And they've gotten results: Highway deaths are way down. But what's next? With a sour economy and automakers in trouble, reporter Audie Cornish considers the daunting challenges Congress now faces.
California Crumbling
Budget constraints have made California's highways — once the envy of the world — more nightmare than dream. Correspondent Ina Jaffe rides along the state's troubled roads, wondering how states can maintain safety levels when they can't afford to keep up their streets and bridges.
Tuesday, Nov. 24
Road Safety
Beyond rumble strips and cloverleaf interchanges, correspondent Naylor looks at new technologies and design ideas that can make roads safer for travel.
NPR also takes a look at the "diverging diamond" highway interchange being put to the test in Missouri.
Driving While Old
Florida is making visibility and navigability improvements because the state leads the country in older-driver deaths. All Things Considered host Robert Siegel travels there to investigate special initiatives, including an older-driver program and an anonymous tip line to alert police to potentially dangerous senior drivers.
Wednesday, Nov. 25
Teen Angel
Though highway fatalities have dropped significantly over the past decade, statistics show there has been little change in the number of highway deaths among teenage boys. NPR's Robert Benincasa explores the persistently lethal mix of horsepower and testosterone.
Aging Suits
New technology is often touted as improving the driving ability of older motorists. Tracy Samilton of NPR member station Michigan Radio investigates whether this technology actually increases safety or simply gives false confidence to older drivers who shouldn't be behind the wheel.
Thursday, Nov. 26
Texting — The New Drinking
Highway officials say that in 2008, nearly 6,000 people were killed as a result of distracted driving — and one-third of those deaths involved texting. NPR reports on efforts to change attitudes about mixing these two activities.
Friday, Nov. 27
Pod Cars
Getting people out of their cars is one of the best ways to reduce highway fatalities, but having them take public transportation can be a hard sell. NPR reports on what some transportation planners hail as the answer: the pod car — a driverless, point-to-point transit that doesn't involve rubbing elbows with strangers.
Saturday, Nov. 28
The Trouble With Tailgating
Many colleges have cracked down on alcohol consumption at football games. Reporter Greg Allen investigates tailgating, including a visit to a football game that's come to be known as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party."
Sunday, Nov. 29
Dangerous Rural Roads
Well over half of traffic deaths occur on rural roads, though only a quarter of the U.S. population is rural. Correspondent Howard Berkes visits a highway in Utah (once labeled "America's Most Dangerous Highway"), which got more than $160 million in safety improvements after demands from residents.
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LIANE HANSEN, host:
This week, the lure of a turkey feast will prompt more than 33 million of us to drive at least 50 miles to celebrate Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, car accidents will claim the lives of hundreds of people during the four-day holiday period. Throughout this week, National Public Radio will be broadcasting reports on highway safety and efforts being made to reduce the number of fatalities.
NPR's senior business editor Marilyn Geewax is here with a preview of the On the Road to Safety series. Welcome back, Marilyn.
MARILYN GEEWAX: Hi, Liane.
HANSEN: First, the big question: Are roads getting safer or more dangerous?
GEEWAX: The fatality rate is absolutely lower than when you and I were children. In 1969, for example, for every 100 million miles that Americans drove, five people would die in accidents. Today that's down to 1.2.
So, we've seen dramatic improvements and a lot of that is from airbags, seatbelts, better brakes, higher quality tires, and we just have better passenger cars. They don't crumple the way they used to. And we've built better roads. And we've changed attitudes about buckling up and about drinking and driving.
But we still have an appalling slaughter out there on our roads. Last year, 37,000 people died on our roads. It's outrageous. And you'd think that people would be pushing for change. But, you know, it's not easy to make significant gains in safety because it would require all of us to change our priorities.
Just take the example of the speed limit. We know that going 55 miles an hour is a lot safer, but we're in a hurry. So, states have raised the speed limits to 65, even higher than that in some places. And we don't like higher taxes, so we don't particularly want to pay for safer roads and bridges. So the only way that we would get significant gains in safety is if we made some really tough choices.
HANSEN: What did NPR reporters uncover when they examined safety issues around the country?
GEEWAX: This issue of technology, we found real reasons for optimism because our cars are becoming a lot more sophisticated. In the future we'll be benefiting from electronics that will prevent skidding and rollovers. And we've got more gadgets coming, like cameras, radar, infrared sensors to help us avoid hitting things.
And there's another bit of good news coming out of Detroit - the automakers are taking aging drivers a little more seriously. And they're looking at things like special windshields that would help make it easier for older drivers to see stop signs and pedestrians in front of them.
HANSEN: Do you think all this new technology is ushering in a golden age of safety?
GEEWAX: Not necessarily, of course, because every time you have advances in technologies, there's also things that can bring us new dangers. So we've got cell phones and texting while you drive are really causing big problems with distracted drivers. I think we'll probably have to have a lot tougher laws to crack down on those practices before we eliminate that danger.
HANSEN: What else do you think drivers and passengers should be concerned about?
GEEWAX: Lots of longstanding old-fashioned problems still out there. Rural roads are a big issue. We've got an interesting report coming about how dangerous rural roads are. We've got a mix of trucks, RVs, school buses, passenger cars all two-lane roads that typically have high speed limits. So that's very dangerous.
And then no one has ever figured out any way to make teenage boys slow down. And we've got problems with - another demographic problem is aging baby boomers. As more and more baby boomers enter their 60s and into their 70s, we'll be seeing more problems with slower flexes and just diminishing driving skills. And state budgets are a problem. We've got - this recession has really drained the coffers, so we've got problems ahead with road improvements.
So, when we look out on where are we with highway safety, I think the outlook seems pretty mixed right now. And we're hoping that listeners will come along with us as we take a tour of our nation's highways.
HANSEN: There is more about the On the Road to Safety series at NPR.org.
Marilyn Geewax is NPR's senior business editor. Thanks a lot, Marilyn.
GEEWAX: You're welcome, Liane. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
