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Roadway deaths: The scope of the problem today

• More than 100 Americans die in motor vehicle crashes every day.
• Crashes are the leading cause of death for people age 15 to 24.
• For the past several decades, all the important measures of roadway deaths — the total number, the number per 100,000 population, the number per miles driven — were going down, but these trends began reversing in 2015, and got even worse in 2016. Pedestrian deaths have also increased dramatically in recent years.
• Current vehicle and roadway designs require that drivers be constantly alert and vigilant. However, drivers predictably become distracted, inattentive, tired, or otherwise impaired.

What road safety could look like in the United States in 2050

• Nearly all vehicles have some level of automation — they brake automatically, warn drivers about objects in their blind spots, park themselves, adjust their speed, and stay in their lanes. Highly automated vehicles, which largely drive themselves, are in widespread use, often as part of mobility service programs.
• Roadways are designed to reduce speed in safety-critical areas and lessen the chances of the most severe crash types.
• When crashes do occur, the likelihood of fatalities has been reduced through improvements in trauma care together with enhanced connectivity for faster crash notification.
• As roadway deaths become less frequent, Americans start to view them as less acceptable. Safety features in cars become more popular, new safety regulations face less opposition, and road safety comes to be viewed as a shared responsibility among drivers, auto manufacturers, civic planners, and other groups.