Despite the reputation the city has for scary traffic and aggressive drivers, new numbers indicate that New York City has a traffic fatality rate among the lowest in the country.
The statistics, which cover the last two years, will be officially released on Monday by the New York City Department of Transportation, but according to the New York Times, the period in question had the lowest numbers of traffic deaths since the city began keeping records about a hundred years ago.
In 2010, the city noted 269 traffic deaths – up five percent from 2009, when traffic fatalities reached a record low. Deaths of pedestrians declined slightly from 156 two years ago to 151 in 2010, which makes the total 21 percent fewer than were recorded in 2001.
According to the as-yet-unreleased report, London, Paris, and Tokyo had even lower traffic fatality rates than New York City.
One suddenly wonders if there’s an inverse correlation between bad traffic jams and traffic-related deaths.