The Disturbing Death Disparity on North American Roads

In a video recently we talked about the bad pedestrian experience in Miami. In response to this video we got some comments telling us to stop complaining. We actually understand this instinctive and emotional reaction people have against strangers coming to their city and criticizing it. But whether or not we should stop complaining, what do the numbers actually say about danger on Miami’s streets?

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[de-fault_de-fault]

“You’re not allowed to notice our city is making people die for no reason, because you’re not from here” is an interesting argument

[CaptHB]

lmao "NOOO YOU GUYS DONT UNDERSTAND WE JUST KILL MORE PEOPLE WITH CARS DOWN HERE THAT'S OUR CULTURE" is what I'm hearing from carbrains.

[denali]

The "safety=crime statistics" paradigm is infuriating.

[themanyouwanttobe]

"Stop criticizing Miami!"

"Well, now we're going to criticize harder."

[stephensmith]

I'm sorry to the Miami folks who were offended but when someone can come in with numbers and prove that *Edmonton* is doing better than you by an order of magnitude, you've got to get your shit together

[rabbbirumba]

As someone who lives in Miami (Part of the year at least) your previous video definitely nailed it. I don’t think any of the Miami residents who criticized you actually walk or bike in the city. As someone who does both I can confirm it’s a pretty crappy experience. Even by North American standards.

[moosesandmeese]

One of the most shocking things I found going through the statistics is that the US has a higher rate of drunk driving deaths and a higher percentage of crashes that are due to drunk driving than in *Russia*

[Arjay]

6:39 "Driving is freedom" I would agree with this under a very big caveat, it's true IF it's a OPTION.

Personally, this is the one thing I hate the most about this whole thing, even more then the roads being too big, speeds too high, cars too big, it being more dangerous, etcetc. Just the fact that for most people in the US in order to simply have a chance to thrive, you HAVE to drive a car. Cars are amazing, but being REQUIRED to get into a car and drive just to buy bread is insane.

[christinevigeland]

This video is great. As an American, I'm ashamed by the fact that Americans seem to think of traffic deaths as an inevitable part of life. If a pedestrian or cyclist is killed by a car, they are usually blamed for using the road without a car.

[gamewarrior]

As someone from Miami who has driven in a lot of places, Miami has some of the most aggressive drivers I’ve ever encountered this combined with the fact that the city is so car dependent that a lot of people who have any option but to use cars don’t have a drivers license or insurance.

[jamalgibson]

As an engineer, this one is particularly depressing. Remember, roads in the US are designed to specific standards. Imagine if we had an electrical code that set standards for electrical products in the US that just randomly electrocuted 40k people per year. How absurd would that be? Even worse if those electrical products were the leading cause of death for children for decades!

This is my main reason as to why this argument is indefensible, because our engineering codes explicitly allow this to happen. If we want to change our roads, we have to change our codes.

[sophanphin]

I live in Boston but work in Miami (actually Coral Gables) so I'm there quite oftn. As someone who spends a lot of time in the major cities in the Northeast (NYC, Boston, Philly but also Toronto and Montreal). I can say without a doubt, Miami is the scariest to walk and bike in. Its not just the larger vehicles but also the mixing of high speed roads and smaller residential streets. You can be biking or walking on a quiet residential street (often with no sidewalk) then suddenly find yourself needing to cross a busy 5-lane road with cars reaching near highway speeds.

[cyclingzen]

It's beyond frustrating to see people thinking autonomous vehicles are the silver bullet for pedestrian safety. Why are we not focusing on improving public transportation and road infrastructure, which are proven solutions to make streets safer for everyone? Betting everything on tech that's still in its infancy over practical, tangible improvements is just mind-boggling. Especially when autonomous vehicles will have their own safety problems!!

[nwash]

I’m from Miami, I grew up in South Miami and went to highschool in Kendall. I never had a car and my parents couldn’t drive me around all the time so that meant I had to walk, bike or try to take public transit to get around as a kid. I grew up just assuming that car centrism was the standard and kind of took pride in getting around despite how difficult it was without a car. Then I moved to DC for college and realized how incredibly unfair and isolating car centric infrastructure really is. This video was really vindicating

[piccalillipit]

*MY ENTIRE EUROPEAN COUNTRY HAD 468* traffic fatalities last year - and the newspapers are complaining that that is way higher than the EU average per capita 73 per 1 million

Miami Dade County is 163 per 1 million and we are THE WORST in Europe - the average is 46 per 1 mill and the lowest is Norway with 21 per 1 mill

[TommyJonesProductions]

Hey! SUVs may be dangerous, get poor gas mileage, have horrible handling, and poor visibility, but at least they look stupid!

[YourCanadianGuide]

I get that people don't want someone to show up and criticize them from their high horse, it makes sense.

However, if your city has poorly designed infrastructure that's flat out more dangerous, sometimes you need someone to point it out and get the conversation moving. Especially if you are speaking out in behalf of marginalized people in their community (poor people who walk/rely on public transit/don't have $80k for a RAM pickup that never towes anything).

[yogtheterrible]

The really stupid thing of people defending pedestrians is EVERYONE IS A PEDESTRIAN. It doesn't matter who you are, if you leave your house at some point in your day you are walking to or from your car and a building.

[Poptartsicles]

To all the skeptics who are anti-pedestrian and anti-public transport. The great thing about pedestrian friendly and public transport friendly cities is they're still car friendly too. They're safer for you to drive in, there's less traffic, and the places you do need to drive to aren't as far away. It's a win win scenario for literally everyone.

[BenriBea]

"My convenience and comfort is more important than your life" should be the US' slogan at this point