The economic question I plan to provide insight on is: “how do gas prices affect road accidents and fatalities in the United States?”
Low gas prices tend to increase the distance travelled by motor vehicles and therefore, increase the likelihood of road accidents. Higher gas prices will ease congestion on the road and will reduce the demand in driving a motorized vehicle. This will therefore reduce the probability of an accident from occurring. If gas prices are low, the number of road accidents have shown to increase in four-wheeled vehicles. Meanwhile, if gas prices are high, the number of road accidents are likely to decrease. Therefore, we can see an inverse relationship between gas prices and four-wheeled motor vehicles. I plan to further explain the effect that these prices have on road accidents.
Policy Relevance:
In the articles I have chosen for my paper, the authors’ objective is mainly to examine the types of interventions the government can use to reduce the total number of road accidents involving automobiles. These policies may include raising the tax prices of gasoline, decreasing the unemployment rate, and many others. In my paper, I will examine each of the authors’ objectives and explain the policy interventions the government can use to solve the problems suggested by the authors.
Article #1: Gasoline Prices and Motor Vehicle Fatalities
Reference: Grabowski, D. C., & Morrisey, M. A. (2004). Gasoline prices and motor vehicle fatalities. Journal of Policy
vehicle collisions yearly, according to Kristof’s projections (Kristof 161). This is exponentially greater than the 30,000 who are killed in car accidents today, after these regulations were
In 1914, Henry Ford transformed the entire world by manufacturing bulk of automobiles and these automobiles completely changed our way of travelling. They became an integral part of our society and we all are dependent upon them. But the way coin has two sides there are pros and cons of automobiles. The economic cost of manufacturing and owing a vehicle can be ignored but there are various global effects which affect our everyday life and can’t be ignored. Few of them are environmental impact, noise pollution, emission of greenhouse gases, congestion from road infrastructure etc. But the most stunning effect is the economic and social burden caused by accidents and fatalities. In 1999 alone about 750,000 people died globally in road related
Results: As we are able to gather from both of these graph which came from U.S. Department of Transportation. We are currently slightly down on DUI’s, but the part that I have found to be even more shocking in a good way that fatalities not involving alcohol has drop almost 10,000. While this graph only shows the amount of crashes it does not put it in as detailed as the next graph does.
If the prices of gas go up, then the volume of traffic will go down. The volume of gas consumed will go down quite a bit. The volume of gas consumed goes down more than the volume of traffic is because price increases causes more efficient use of gas. The efficiency use of gas will go up and the total vehicles owned will go
Each year numerous lives are lost due to careless and irrational driving. The disregard for safe driving has been a predicament to the United States of America for years. Many years Police have relied heavily on speed cameras, breathalyzer tests and heavy fines as a deterrent against unlawful drivers. Over the years fatality rates have increased, so the Department of Transportation and Highway Safety has composed a series of safe driving campaigns. On many occasions the Transportation Department informs and advises the public about the importance of responsible driving. They propagate safe driving through the various channels of the media and
Once upon a time Americans hopped into their cars on warm spring days and took long drives to admire the beauty of nature. Teenagers took joy rides around town to meet friends and rode from one “hot spot” to another. Those were the days when gas prices were affordable to the average American. Over the past few years, gas prices in the United States have been on the rise. What is causing the increase in gas prices?
It is important to note that when the authors analyzed data from this source they did not separate fatal accidents involving drunk driving from accidents that did not pertain to drunk driving as to minimize the influence of outside factors like the bias of a police officer. The authors then used this data to look at trends in fatal accident rates on both Sunday’s and weekdays in states that either repealed their blue laws between 1900 and 2009, states that still had blue laws during that time period and states that either never had blue laws or repealed prior to 1990. Upon looking at these trends, the authors did not discover any major changes in the fatal accident rates on Sunday in states that repealed their Blue laws. The only notable evidence to support a claim that the repeal of Blue laws leads to more fatal accidents on Sunday was the fact that in repeal states Sunday crash rates “remained constant until 2006” while their weekday fatal accident crash rates had decreased in the late 1990’s (2011, 807-8). Yet this does not suggest that the repeal of Blue laws caused this as the same relative trend occurred in states that never had Blue laws which signifies that the trend was not caused by the repeal of Blue laws. Additionally, in repeal states their fatal accident rates on both Sunday and on weekdays had a general downward trend with the only difference being that the weekdays fatal accident rate decreased at a slightly stronger rate. This led the authors to conclude that Blue laws have “at most a small effect on fatal accidents” as there were no significant changes in the fatal accident rates to support that claim (2011, 808). Finally, the authors used the same data set to demonstrate that the repealing of Blue laws did not have any significant effect on the fatal accident rates
In today’s society, everyone seems to be in a rush. Convenience trumps nearly anything and everything. The closest and the promptest option is the one we often lean toward, regardless of the consequence or cost. One of the biggest convenience items within the 21st Century is gasoline. Regardless of the price, we often purchase this item at the most suitable site and time, especially when we are in desperate need of the item. Gasoline companies are alert that convenience is ideal; therefore, they alter gas prices to obtain the greatest amount of business.
The authors single most important idea of the passage is to persuade parents and the states to raise the legal driving age of sixteen. She uses statics and collective experience to show that raising the driving age will help lower death rates.
2. In addition, there is a study by Miller & Zaloshnja, published by (PIRE) the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in 2009.[6] In the study, It was assessed that the costs of deficient roadways amounted to $217 billion per year. That’s more than double the costs of crashes related to alcohol or speeding or failing to wear safety belt. Yet, why is it that we don’t hear of this in the media? Our public safety focus needs to be readjusted towards the renewal of our roadways and it must be a top priority.
To begin, I believe it prudent to discuss the macroeconomic considerations of rising gas prices on both the income and substitution effect. As such, a brief but comprehensive introduction will be needed to help make inference concerning consumer behavior. To begin,
The argument that Forestville should reverse a decision it made six months ago to raise its speed limit by 10MPH due to a 15% rise in accidents because accidents in Elmsford, a neighboring region, declined slightly, is inconclusive. A base line study of traffic pattern disruptions and speed variances in Forestville and Elmsford comparing demographic data, location, rate, and type of accidents for more than six months might determine significant risk factors. Federal studies suggest that accidents rise if speed limits are raised on highways by as much as 5% for each 4 MPH but on moderate speed limit roads, no such relationship exists. Other studies show accidents decrease with a rise in speed limit since artificially low limits also cause
One of the major disadvantages of driving is the risk of death due to fatal car accidents in the United States, which was around 32, 719 highway deaths in 2013. However, for public transportation, such as trains, there have been on average 876 deaths due to a rail incidents in 2013 in the United States ("Crossing Collisions & Casualties by Year."). Although these numbers seem high, light trucks, vans, and passengers compose a majority of the highway deaths and only a mere 6 rail passengers were a part of the 891. Although these statistics are on a national level, these statistics show how much safer it is for a person to travel by train rather than by car, and even more, if the number of cars decreased in the Atlanta Metropolitan area and people used other forms of transportation, such as public transportation, air pollution’s health risks and effects would not harm the urban population as much as they do
Numerous items require a maintenance payment in order to do what the buyers bought the item to do. Houses need repair, PCs use power, stoves need gas, and school courses are just helpful when the students have the essential course books. Therefore, when a purchaser buys an item, it would be rational to think of the expense of inputs to the item instead of just the sticker cost of the item. All the more particularly, cars require the continuing input of gas which the rational buyers ought to consider before purchasing.
The US consumed 142 billion gallons of gasoline in 2007 and the tax applied on it is 18. 4 cents on one gallon. All around the US, there are around 162,000 retail gasoline outlets. With the price of crude oil hovering around $100 a barrel, it is no wonder that concern is growing about the gas prices being so high. After all, modern economies are kept moving by this lifeblood. For instance, in the United States alone personal vehicles consume more than 140 billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline per year.However, there are several factors that contribute to the gas prices being so high. Given below are a few of them. Increasing Demand for Oil One of the main catalysts for the incessant rise in gas prices has been one of the most