Traffic Death Rates: Per million miles or per population?

[MSI]

In a recent Linkedin Post on 2023 Traffic death data
The following was presented:

• The European Union just published 2023 traffic death data ("20,400 lives lost in EU road crashes last year" ). The figure below compares them with Canadian and U.S. data, showing that North Americans perform poorly compared with peers.

  

  2023 Traffic Death Rates per Million Population.png (95.21 KiB) Viewed 243 times

  The U.S. National Traffic Safety Administration does not even provide per capita traffic death rates, instead they publish deaths per 100 million vehicle-miles which misrepresents the issue; it ignores the additional traffic casualties caused by increases in vehicle travel and the safety benefits of vehicle travel reductions ("Early Estimate of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities in 2023". Their analysis emphasizes small reductions in traffic death rates post-Covid pandemic, rather than the very large disparity between U.S. and other countries.
  
  For more discussion of these issues see "A New Traffic Safety Paradigm" and Wes Marshall's book, "Killed by a Traffic Engineer"
  
  What do you think? What will convince North American transportation professionals to support the new traffic safety strategies that are so successful in peer countries?

Here is a link to my comment and the post wtih comments:
My initial response to the initial post:

• One problem with the argument in your post...
  comparing per million miles indicates how much the population is driving...
  in Europe
  the average miles per year for the total population i would guess is MUCH LESS than the average miles driven by US drivers.
  WHY?
  In Europe trains and buses are used much more frequently and daily than in the US
  so
  THERIN lies the large disparity in the traffic deaths 'Per Million population' vs 'per hundred million miles'
  
  statistics...wherein the truth lies

Here is my response to a comment on EU v US and vehicle useage:

• when comparing EU to USA one must take into consideration that until and unless the US slows the miles driven per person the chances of crashes and deaths will be higher in the US by any metric.
  The Highway Safety act of 1960s has vastly decreased the deaths and injuries per mile.
  Next step is to try to
  1) get drivers to slow down (Speeding increases chances of death and injury to levels like DUI!)
  2) Distracted Driving - phones, txting, not paying attention - Driving is an active task
  3) Get folks to use mass transit so less miles driven on which to have a chance to crash!
  4) in US improve city road design to better handle pedestrians and bicycles...
  

  

  FARS data 1.png (53.15 KiB) Viewed 250 times

  

  FARS data 2.png (64.92 KiB) Viewed 250 times

My response to a post which said that what i had posted wasn't a "'winning argument":

• "winning" isn't what it is about...is is comparing apples with apples...not with oranges
  EU countries utilize mass transportation more then the US does
  so
  there are significant less 'deaths per capita'
  what does that really mean?
  it means more use of mass transportation, bicycles and walking, equates to less deaths 'per capita'
  but lets look at deaths 'per hundred million miles' too since THAT indicates how safe are the roadways and vehicles
  and throw in deaths 'in cars' vs pedestrian and bicycle deaths since that may be greater in EU than US,...or not.
  Traffic Engineers aren't 'killing more people' in the US v EU
  roads and cities can be designed for bicycles and pedestrian safety but if folks want to drive drive drive...how to change?
  fees to enter congested areas?
  red light and speed cameras (very effective in EU, no so much in US since pushback from folks getting fines from them! and weak legislatures yielding to the pushback)
  more mas transit projects (but the $$$ cost gets pushback)

[MSI]

Mentioned in the above to the original Linkedin Post are 2 items 'for further reading':

• A New Traffic Safety Paradigm", Todd Litman
• Killed by a Traffic Engineer, Wes Marshall

I've started a new topic on that paper and book:

• Review: New Safety Paradigm for Highway Safety?