Wes Marshall > Quotes

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regularly points to traffic deathse as the number one cause of unintentional injury death for all Americans aged 4 through 34.2 This isn’t new. I found a 2002 paper saying that “in the US, injury, both intentional and unintentional, is the leading cause of death from age 1 to age 45. Because it so disproportionately strikes the young, it is also the leading cause of lost years prior to age 75, more than either cancer or heart disease. Motor vehicle injury is the largest single component of these losses.”3 I also found a 1983 paper lamenting that “automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for all persons between the ages of six months and age 47.”4 And a 1965 paper warned us that “traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among all persons from age 5 to 31!”5 The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that each traffic death equates to an average of 30 lost years of life expectancy.6 With 1.35 million road deaths worldwide each year, more than 2 percent of all deaths from all causes, this adds up to 40 million years of life lost annually on our streets.f WHO also estimates that for every road death, there are at least 10 to 15 people hospitalized due to road crashes.7 This means 13 million to 20 million hospitalizations and millions more that probably should’ve gone to the hospital.”
― Wes Marshall, Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System

“After the oil embargo in the 1970s, safety researchers fretted that fuel-efficient “minicars” would “capture 40% of the automobile market by the year 2000” and devastate the US road safety recorde (whereas by 1990, they predicted it would approach 70,000 fatalities each year) while bankrupting US auto manufacturers due to liability claims.2 Reports like this habitually fail to point out that heavier vehicles are less safe for everybody else on the street. That includes pedestrians or bicyclists as well as those in other cars.f So, the question is, safe for whom?”
― Wes Marshall, Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System

“Today, the estimated cost of all motor vehicle traffic crashes in the United States alone is on the order of $340 billion annually.7 These tangible costs include lost productivity, workplace losses, legal and court expenses, medical costs, emergency medical services, insurance administration costs, congestion costs due to the crash, and property damage costs. If we include nontangible losses such as those related to loss of quality of life, it jumps to $1.76 trillion.”
― Wes Marshall, Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System

“The National Transportation Safety Board’s recent speed report suggests five approaches.15 First, they want to lower speed limits. Cool. Second, they want to use “data-driven approaches for speed enforcement” in combination with their third approach, automated enforcement. OK. Fourth on the list is what they call “intelligent speed adaptation.” This term refers to things like onboard warnings when the driver speeds, but also includes using technology to limit car speeds in particular locations and on specific streets. Sounding better. Last, they say we need to do better when it comes to exercising “national leadership,” which basically means we need more funding and more education. I”
― Wes Marshall, Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System

“We could use geofencing to limit car speeds within cities, or certain parts of cities, or even by time of day or day of week such as when schools or bars let out. Doing so would save lives. We choose not to. Europe isn’t exactly limiting speeds, yet. But as of 2022, Europe requires that all new cars sold use GPS and street sign detection to determine if a driver is speeding and if so, warn the driver. Starting in 2021, Volvo limits top speeds on new cars to 112 mph. It’s not revolutionary—nor that helpful to pedestrians and bicyclists”
― Wes Marshall, Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System

“On his Against the Rules podcast, author Michael Lewis says, “For roughly 5,000 years, people called themselves doctors and pretended to know all sorts of things that they didn’t know and were as likely to kill you as to cure you. These doctors existed because sick people desperately wanted to believe them.”
― Wes Marshall, Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System