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# Pedestrian deaths have been rising for a decade. Mostly in America, and mostly at night. Why?
- URL: https://birchtree.me/blog/pedestrian-deaths-have-been-rising-for-a-decade-mostly-in-america-and-mostly-at-night-why/
- Published: 2023-12-17T14:41:49.000Z
- Updated: 2023-12-17T14:41:49.000Z
- Author: Matt Birchler
- Tags: Links, #Import 2025-03-29 19:29

Emily Badger, Ben Blatt, Josh Katz for the New York Times: [Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night?](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/11/upshot/nighttime-deaths.html?campaign%5Fid=190&emc=edit%5Fufn%5F20231213&instance%5Fid=110068&nl=from-the-times®i%5Fid=89263722&segment%5Fid=152524&te=1&user%5Fid=ca9782c11c92a53f9ddf0b8826ff3601&ref=birchtree.me)

> What’s even more perplexing: Nothing resembling this pattern has occurred in other comparably wealthy countries. In places like Canada and Australia, a much lower share of pedestrian fatalities occurs at night, and those fatalities — rarer in number — have generally been declining, not rising.

This is a really interesting phenomenon, and the article goes through a bunch of possible reasons (likely covering what your mind immediately goes to), but as they show, none of these reasons fully account for the uptick.

> Individually, any of these theories seems unsatisfying. But put together, it’s clear that there’s been a particularly American mix of technological and social changes over the past decade and a half. And they have all come on top of a road system and an ingrained culture that prioritizes speed over safety.