The Benefits of Slower Traffic, Measured in Money and Lives

There’s overwhelming evidence that road diets reduce collisions, with some federal studies suggesting an average decline of 19 percent in places like New Brunswick. Of course, these safety upgrades tend to result in slower traffic, a price public officials are often reluctant to pay. So a research group led by Robert Noland of Rutgers set out to weigh the congestion costs against the safety benefits as directly as possible.

City Lab, October 2