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Transportation Safety

Crashes vs. Congestion: What’s the Cost to Society?
March 2008, Report

The American Automobile Association (AAA) released this groundbreaking report by Cambridge Systematics that compares the societal and economic impacts of motor vehicle crashes and traffic congestion. By calculating a per person cost for crashes and multiplying this cost by the population figures in the same urban areas used by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) in the annual Urban Mobility Report, CS was able to compare the cost of crashes to the cost of congestion. The CS study shows that the costs of traffic crashes is nearly two and half times the cost of congestion – $164.2 billion for traffic crashes and $67.6 billion for congestion. Most Americans would be surprised to learn the societal costs associated with motor vehicle crashes significantly exceed the costs of congestion. 

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