I started thinking of some of the positives that have come out of the pandemic. It was hard to think of much. One positive was how clean the air was for several months in big cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Denver, when the big cities locked down. You could see stars at night and blue skies during the day. I also thought that because there were less cars on the road, traffic and pedestrian fatalities would be down. Was I wrong.
Empty streets and no gridlock would surely mean less fatalities, i thought, but that was not the case. The number of vehicle miles traveled in the first six months of 2020 fell by 16.6%. In New York, it was even more pronounced according to NYU's Rudin Center for Transportation. NYCity drivers were traveling 93% less in April, 2020, compared to January, 2020, By June, traffic volume was back around 70-80% of normal.
The overall number of deaths was less, but the calculation of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles driven went up. Why did this happen? The type of driver who was out on the road when most people were staying at home were more risky drivers. Empty streets led to fast, sometimes reckless driving, The more conservative driver happened to be the driver who was staying home to avoid crowds. Those that thought Covid-19 was a hoax, or thought everyone was making too much of it, were out driving, partying, and enjoying empty streets.
We are now on course to have the deadliest record of fatalities since 2014. Hopefully, distribution of the vaccine will be swift and efficient, and by summer we will have put much of this behind us.
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