Comparing the fatality risks in United States transportation across modes and over time
Section snippets
Cross-sectional analysis
The analysis in this section is based on calculating an average annual number of fatalities using data for the ten-year period from 2000 to 2009. An Appendix A gives details on the sources of the data.
Time-series analysis
The second part of the paper is an analysis of the trends in fatalities and fatality rates across the 36 year period from 1975 to 2010. A series of figures is used to plot the data and illustrate the trends. A Supplementary Appendix containing the data for the figures is posted on the journal website.
Concluding remarks
By almost any measure, transportation is considerably safer now than it was in the mid 1970s. The improvement is especially noticeable for commercial modes such as aviation, railroads and maritime. Even the risks of private highway driving have halved during the past thirty-five years.
Yet there is no cause for complacency. There is continued public pressure for even more improvement. In part this is because transportation is, despite the improvement over time, a significant source of the risks
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