BEST argues for increasing investments in transportation safety statewide
“You can’t measure the cost of each lost life. Except we can and do, every time we make choices about how to invest transportation dollars.”
—BEST executive director Rob Zako
During the kickoff of the Move Oregon Forward campaign, BEST executive director Rob Zako shared the following comments about transportation safety.
On a Sunday afternoon in Springfield, a mother and her three kids were walking home after getting ice cream together. They waited for a green light to cross Main Street legally in a crosswalk. Suddenly, a driver that had momentarily lost attention, runs his red light and crashes into them. The mother survived but her children, ages 8, 5, and 4, all perished.[1, 2]
Main Street is Highway 126 Business, a typical 5-lane, undivided state highway and freight route designed for speed: 55 miles per hour, even if the posted speed limit is less. Unfortunately, speed kills. First, drivers going faster have less time to react to what is in front of them, making crashes more likely. Second, a vehicle traveling 40 miles per hour has four times the energy of one traveling 20 miles an hour, making it more likely that someone hit will be killed.[3]
Oregon has hundreds of main streets much like the one in Springfield. Such traffic deaths happen all too often. The number of Oregonians who died from transportation-related injuries rose from 530 in 2020 to 597 in 2021, and then to 606 in 2022.[4]
Each life lost impacts many others: daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. You can’t measure the cost of each lost life.
Except we can and do, every time we make choices about how to invest transportation dollars. The U.S. Department of Transportation recommends assigning a cost of $12.5 million to each life lost for the purposes of making public policy choices.[5]
Thus the 606 deaths across Oregon in 2022 should be valued at a total of $7.5 billion: more than double the $3.1 billion Oregon spends in dollars on transportation each year.[6] Following USDOT guidance, it would be economically advantageous to spend a fraction of $7.5 billion each year to reduce a proportional number of traffic deaths.
Traffic deaths are not “accidents.” They are the predictable and preventable result of mixing heavy, fast-moving vehicles with mothers and children along a main street where people live, work, and go for ice cream.
To protect and enhance the lives of the people of Oregon, we need to invest in creating Great Streets that serve all people, whether walking, biking, rolling, riding the bus, or driving.[7, 8] The estimated one-third of all Oregonians who do not drive regularly need safe ways to go.[9] We need to invest in Safe Routes to School so kids can get to school safely.[10] We need to invest in Community Paths to provide safe opportunities for Oregonians to recreate and recharge.[11]
As the Legislature debates how to come up with funding to extend the “life” of roadways and bridges, it is essential that we invest in Oregon’s highest priorities. There is no higher priority than the lives of Oregonians.
Notes:
- Police: 3 kids crossing Main Street in crosswalk hit, killed by car (KVAL, 2/22/15)
- Vision Zero’s Vision—No Traffic Deaths (AARP, 7/1/16)
- How Speed Kills (NACTO, Summer 2020)
- Oregon data shows traffic deaths on the rise across the state (OPB, 11/28/23),
New Oregon dashboard shows transportation deaths are rising (Oregonian, 10/20/23) - Departmental Guidance on Valuation of a Statistical Life in Economic Analysis (USDOT, 5/7/24)
- Transportation Funding in Oregon (ODOT)
- Great Streets Program (ODOT)
- Complete Streets (Smart Growth America)
- What a Week Without Driving Can Teach (Anna Zivarts, Bloomberg CityLab, 9/18/23)
- Safe Routes to School Programs (ODOT)
- Oregon Community Paths Program (ODOT)
See also
- Legislature hits the road to hear about transportation needs (BEST, 5/23/24)
- Oregon says it will soon run out of money for transportation (BEST, 5/2/24)