Christopher's Final

Christopher Thaggard
Professor Miller
Assignment# 9
June 20, 2007
Govt. 490


Final Paper
Automobile Safety


The debate can be argued by many in the profession of economics, city planning and local, state, and federal government to how much of a significant role public transportation plays in people’s lives. Public transportation is believed as well as is depicted by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) as being safer, cheaper, and a more fuel efficient way of travel over that of private transportation.
Public transportation is considered to be any mode of transportation that charges a set fare amount, in addition to has a fixed route in which it travels, as well as is openly available to the public. Such modes of public transportation can include but are not limited to buses, subways, ferries, and trains, which are all openly available to the public as well as charge fixed fare amounts and have set routes.
It is argued in favor of public transportation that states that offer citizens more forms and modes of public transportation tend to see far less traffic and motor vehicle accidents and fatalities than those states that do not. Those in favor of public transportation argue that public transportation takes those factors that have been shown to greatly increase the chances of motor vehicle fatalities out of the equation. Such factors are but are not limited to the following; being under the influence, being sleep deprived, being an inexperienced driver, an elderly driver, as well as fearful drivers that are on the road. All such factors have been shown in independent studies to have high contributions in the amount of motor vehicle accidents and motor vehicle fatalities that occur throughout the world, not just limited within the United States.
In recent studies conducted in the field by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), which solely looked at the amount of motor vehicle fatalities that took place within United States to determine if it was at all possible to decrease the amount of annual motor vehicle fatalities and motor vehicle accidents while at the same time come to a conclusion to whether it was necessary for the Federal Government to increase the amount of government spending in funding new public transportation initiatives to provide more public transportation options to its citizens to overall help decrease the amount of motor vehicle fatalities that could occur.
From these studies there has been has been proven that there is a link between that of amount of public transportation a state provides and the overall influence that it has on the total number of annual deaths that can be contributed by that of motor vehicles in the United States. From these studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation they have shown and concluded that public transportation has a positive affect on the whole in the amount of motor vehicle fatalities that occur in the United States each year. It has shown that states that offer more modes of public transportation have a far less rate of motor vehicle fatalities as well as motor vehicle accidents.
In states that offer many different modes of public transportation to its citizens like that of the District of Columbia, New York, California and Virginia the amount of motor vehicle fatalities were far less than those states that do not offer citizens a number of modes of public transportation like that of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Arkansas, which the studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation has shown relatively speaking has a higher amount of motor vehicle fatalities than that of other states.
In conclusion in order for us to curb the amount of fatalities caused by motor vehicles each year, we must make a better attempt by limiting those factors that greatly increase of the risk of such accidents to occur like those individuals that drive under the influence, that are sleep deprived, and inexperienced drivers, elderly drivers, as well as fearful drivers that are on the road and to do this we must make available more modes of public transportation such as buses, ferries, and trains, which are all openly available to the public.