A new academic study looking at the numbers of pedestrians killed while wearing headphones has been highly successful at winning credulous news coverage and shifting blame to the victims, but by focusing on a tiny sliver of fatalities it does more to obscure the true causes than explain what is happening. It examines a share of pedestrian fatalities so small as to be almost statistically insignificant when compared to the problem of pedestrian deaths writ large. READ FULL STORY
1 in 9 highway bridges in the U.S. are classified as "structurally deficient," requiring significant maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement. Is your state doing a good or bad job at maintaining these vital pieces of infrastructure? Where are these bridges located? Our interactive map allows you to map all the deficient bridges within 10 miles of any U.S. address, view a national report and 51 state reports and a full national ranking of state bridge condition.
By 2015, more than 15.5 million Americans 65 and older will live in communities where public transportation service is poor or non-existent. That number is expected to continue to grow rapidly as the baby boom generation “ages in place” in suburbs and exurbs with few mobility options for those who do not drive. Aging in Place, Stuck without Options ranks metro areas by the percentage of seniors with poor access to public transportation, now and in the coming years, and presents other data on aging and transportation.
The decades-long neglect of pedestrian safety in the design and use of American streets is exacting a heavy toll on our lives. From 2000 to 2009, 47,700 pedestrians were killed, equivalent to a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing roughly every month. Despite the magnitude of these avoidable tragedies, little public attention or resources have been committed to reducing pedestrian deaths and injuries. Search our interactive map of fatalities, view the full rankings of metros and download the report.