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The number of pedestrian fatalities fell from 148 to 101. https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-traffic-fatalities-fell-in-2017-by-7-report-says-152184832

The number of pedestrian fatalities fell from 148 to 101. https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-traffic-fatalities-fell-in-2017-by-7-report-says-1521848322 https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-traffic-fatalitie... That's a saving of roughly $500M with the ~$10M/life figure used by government agencies like the EPA and the NHTSA, which works out to ~$60 per NYC citizen. Has anyone tried to estimate the value lost to less efficient traffic flow? Median household income is $50k, so valuing the median person's time at a few times the minimum wage, say $30/hour, suggest that initiative was worth it if it cost the typical person less than 2 hours over the year. This should of course include the bike and pedestrian traffic flow, which has plausibly gotten more efficient considering the type of changes being made.

ikawe 8y ago
Keep in mind this isn’t just about pedestrian fatalities - traffic fatalities across all modes decreased. I think sometimes these conversations get framed only as “driver convenience” vs “pedestrian and cyclist lives”. Which, admittedly it sometimes comes down to, but these programs are saving drivers lives too.
- tomatotomato37 8y ago
  >traffic fatalities across all modes decreased The first couple lines of linked WSJ article says differently, though I don't have a WSJ account so I can't say if this is an actual rise or just the result of a higher driving population
  - ikawe 8y ago
    > overall traffic fatalities down by 27 per cent. The first half of 2018 has seen the fewest traffic-related fatalities in any six-month period ever measured in America's most populated city, officials say. Edit: From the original article, but you’re right, 2017 showed an increase in certain modes, with a decrease overall.
crazysim 8y ago
I wonder if they record traffic casualties, not just fatalities. Those cost $$$ too.
codingdave 8y ago
> Has anyone tried to estimate the value lost to less efficient traffic flow? I currently work with traffic safety applications, and while I do not claim full expertise in this industry, I do know that the primary metric for success is reducing the number of fatalities. I have never seen a single product request around balancing efficiency of traffic against lives. That just isn't how the goalposts are set.
- jessriedel 8y ago
  The NHTSA definitely uses this metric for many decisions. Anyone who doesn't explicitly compare the cost of lives vs. efficiency of course does so implicitly when ever they say that a possible safety feature "isn't reasonable" or "isn't feasible". (After all, we could all have more safety by setting a max speed limit of 10 mph and building speed-bump-covered roads to prevent faster travel.) The implicit method allows people to say silly things like "we never compromise safety for any reason", it inevitably leads to strictly worse trade-offs.
  - codingdave 8y ago
    Remind me which roads are actually owned and operated by the NHTSA?
    - jessriedel 8y ago
      We both know none, and my comment didn't state otherwise. The NHTSA nevertheless has significant influence on traffic design (not just vehicle regulations): > Another of NHTSA's major activities is the creation and maintenance of the data files maintained by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis. In particular, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), has become a resource for traffic safety research not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Research contributions using FARS by researchers from many countries appear in many non-U.S. technical publications,[8] and provide a significant database and knowledge bank on the subject. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Highway_Traffic_Safety_Administration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Highway_Traffic_Safet...

ikawe 8y ago

Keep in mind this isn’t just about pedestrian fatalities - traffic fatalities across all modes decreased. I think sometimes these conversations get framed only as “driver convenience” vs “pedestrian and cyclist lives”. Which, admittedly it sometimes comes down to, but these programs are saving drivers lives too.

tomatotomato37 8y ago
>traffic fatalities across all modes decreased The first couple lines of linked WSJ article says differently, though I don't have a WSJ account so I can't say if this is an actual rise or just the result of a higher driving population
- ikawe 8y ago
  > overall traffic fatalities down by 27 per cent. The first half of 2018 has seen the fewest traffic-related fatalities in any six-month period ever measured in America's most populated city, officials say. Edit: From the original article, but you’re right, 2017 showed an increase in certain modes, with a decrease overall.

crazysim 8y ago

I wonder if they record traffic casualties, not just fatalities. Those cost $$$ too.

codingdave 8y ago

> Has anyone tried to estimate the value lost to less efficient traffic flow? I currently work with traffic safety applications, and while I do not claim full expertise in this industry, I do know that the primary metric for success is reducing the number of fatalities. I have never seen a single product request around balancing efficiency of traffic against lives. That just isn't how the goalposts are set.

jessriedel 8y ago
The NHTSA definitely uses this metric for many decisions. Anyone who doesn't explicitly compare the cost of lives vs. efficiency of course does so implicitly when ever they say that a possible safety feature "isn't reasonable" or "isn't feasible". (After all, we could all have more safety by setting a max speed limit of 10 mph and building speed-bump-covered roads to prevent faster travel.) The implicit method allows people to say silly things like "we never compromise safety for any reason", it inevitably leads to strictly worse trade-offs.
- codingdave 8y ago
  Remind me which roads are actually owned and operated by the NHTSA?
  - jessriedel 8y ago
    We both know none, and my comment didn't state otherwise. The NHTSA nevertheless has significant influence on traffic design (not just vehicle regulations): > Another of NHTSA's major activities is the creation and maintenance of the data files maintained by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis. In particular, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), has become a resource for traffic safety research not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Research contributions using FARS by researchers from many countries appear in many non-U.S. technical publications,[8] and provide a significant database and knowledge bank on the subject. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Highway_Traffic_Safety_Administration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Highway_Traffic_Safet...