Traffic: Lighter and Deadlier

A formerly gridlocked Hwy 580 (SJ Mercury)

Traffic has been much lighter in Foster City. The majority of people now work from home, and the cancellation of in-person classes at the three elementary and one middle school in our city of 30,000 has left the streets mostly empty.

As I go on my daily walks, however, I actually have to take greater care when crossing the street. A higher percentage of the cars seems to be speeding. Too often I have seen drivers make aggressive right turns-on-red and whiz through residential neighborhoods despite the increased number of bicyclists, walkers, skateboarders, and runners.

My personal observations--less traffic but more speeders--seems to be a nationwide phenomenon: [bold added]

Fewer competing vehicles should have made driving safer—but instead, the rate of fatal crashes climbed as unimpeded speed demons put the pedal to the metal...

Nationally, vehicle miles traveled dropped an unprecedented 264.2 billion miles over the first half of 2020, a decline of 17% compared with the first half of 2019, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In the same period, the agency estimated the number of fatalities shrank 2%, falling to 16,650 from 16,988 the previous year. But the rate of fatalities grew 18%, rising to 1.25 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, up from 1.06.

In other words, an inordinate number of people died given how many fewer miles they traveled. It was the highest motor-vehicle fatality rate for that span of time in a dozen years.

As a driver, I am much happier that there aren't any more traffic jams, especially during the morning and afternoon periods that used to be known as rush hours. Unfortunately, a minority of drivers are spoiling--often calamitously--this happiness for the rest of us.