Economic Cost of Traffic Crashes: Establishing a System Performance Measure for Safety

This paper estimates the economic cost of traffic crashes for 85 of the U.S. metropolitan areas included in the biennial Urban Mobility Report. The economic cost of traffic crashes was calculated based on fatality and injury data collected for each metropolitan area and multiplying that data by an economic estimate for each crash type. These estimates were then normalized and compared to the cost of congestion for each area. This paper is an update of a similar report that was released in 2008 by the American Automobile Association (AAA) Foundation. The findings of the research show that the cost of crashes exceeds the cost of congestion, on average, at a rate of roughly 3.2 to 1 in the 85 metropolitan areas.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Kittelson, Matthew
  • Meyer, Michael D
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2011-1-23 to 2011-1-27
• Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 90th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Crash injuries; Crashes; Fatalities; Highway safety; Metropolitan areas; Traffic congestion; Urban areas
• Identifier Terms: Urban Mobility Study
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I10: Economics and Administration; I81: Accident Statistics;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01337904
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 11-0934
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 27 2011 7:20AM