Seatbelts, improved auto frames, and airbags have made cars a lot safer. That’s how things are rolling inside vehicles. “But as cars grew safer for the people inside them, the U.S. didn’t progress as other countries did to prioritizing the safety of people outside them.” Your best bet if your commute involves walking or biking: take a detour through Europe. In America, about 43,000 people died on the roads in 2021. Other countries have made an effort to protect pedestrians and cyclists, and it’s working. The NYT Upshot (Gift Article): The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths. “‘We know what the problem is, we know what the solution is,’ said Caron Whitaker, deputy executive director at the League of American Bicyclists. ‘We just don’t have the political will to do it.'”

+ It turns out we don’t have to look abroad for examples. We can look in Hoboken. CityLab: Where ‘Vision Zero’ Is Working.

+ In addition to more pedestrians getting run over these days, more drivers are leaving the scene. Tamara Dean in The Guardian: What it’s like to get hit by an SUV. “One Thursday afternoon, I stepped out to cross a city street – and woke up in hospital with broken bones and a brain injury. After I recovered, I started looking into why so many drivers just don’t stop.”