245,000 Dead Since 9-11

No it's not Darfur, but it is something that goes ignored.  It is the amount of people who have died in car accidents in the United States since 9-11.  But no one is saying anything, and there has been no uproar.

This diary stems from an article in the Los Angeles Times written by Greg Easterbrook.  I felt compelled to share it with everyone here because it hit me.  Friends of mine who talk transit every day have mentioned the traffic meat grinder, but it never hit me until this frame was introduced.  Why isn't there an uproar? From the article:

Suppose 245,000 americans had died in terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001. The United States would be beside itself, utterly gripped by a sense of national emergency. Political leaders would speak of nothing else, the United States military would stand at maximum readiness, and the White House would vow not to rest until the danger to Americans had been utterly eradicated.

It's true, we would be going crazy.  I mean, we lost 3,000 on 9-11 and look what happened after that, we invaded two countries and lost another 3,000 brave men.  

Typical Americans are to blame as well. Because we don't want to contemplate dying in a car crash, we seem to assume that highway fatalities cannot be reduced, that they fall into the "stuff happens" category. This isn't so. Risks of driving or of crossing the street -- each year more pedestrians die in the United States than the death toll of 9/11 -- could be reduced significantly without any sacrifice of freedom by car owners.

They can be reduced. He goes on to talk about all the ways that these accidents can be reduced.  The article also states that Vehicle Miles Traveled has increased by 170% in the last 30 years. But they didn't have to.  Our land use patterns have led to more driving and less walking and transit usage.  This could be reversed with a national strategy.  We just need the will to recognize the threat that is brought to us by the roads and deal with it accordingly.  So when we talk about infrastructure more, let us consider the effect of the traffic meat grinder that is our highways.