California’s stay-at-home order reduced vehicle accidents on roadways by a little more than half, saving taxpayers about $1 billion since the order has been made effective in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus. This research has been carried out by a UC Davis survey.
“The savings was about $40 million per day … That’s about $15 billion over a one-year period, which is almost the size of the state portion of California’s transportation budget for one year,” stated Fraser Shilling, co-director of the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis.
The survey used information from California Highway Patrol incident reports, and the costs saving was calculated by using equivalent information from the Federal Highway Administration. Costs consists of property damage, treatment of injuries, lost time at work and emergency responses, and other costs.
A decline in traffic accidents was expected as people limited their vehicular travel to work, buying stuff and other essentials.
Traffic volumes were up to 55% less for select highways compared with the volumes prior to any restriction on movement. This resulted in significantly less traffic collisions, the survey discovered. At the same time, the maximum and average traffic speeds slightly boosted in certain highways by a few miles per hour.
Between March 21 and April 11, the average daily number of all traffic accidents was about 450. It was 1,128 during the same period in 2019.
There was an estimated 40% reduction in injury incidents reported among hospitals in the Sacramento area, the survey stated. This was especially correct for pedestrians and bicyclists who observed a 50% decline in traumatic injuries, compared with the same period in the last year.
Shilling stated vehicular traffic number has likely plateaued.
“There are still a lot of people driving. The rest of the 50% of traffic is not just essential trips,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that people are bad, it just means we are not good at this sudden change of behaviors, were not prepared for this type of thing.”
The traffic crash declines temporarily reversed, however, during and following heavy rains on April 6 and 9 in Southern California. Though traffic numbers remained the same, it seems that the rain combined with higher speeds contributed to accidents briefly returning to the state’s normal collision levels — 1,000 to 1,500 crashes per day, the survey suggested.
An earlier survey by the same center revealed similar results with about 50% fewer traffic crashes.
Shilling said the decline in motor vehicle accidents on highways and roads is directly attributed to the order made by the governor’s order. But the decline started even before the order, generally in the Bay Area, where localities issued their own stay-at-home orders days earlier.
According to Shilling, one of the most encouraging discoveries was that declines in injuries and deaths were especially pronounced among pedestrians and cyclists.
”Suddenly you have much fewer cars,” Shilling stated. “So it’s much safer to be a pedestrian or cyclist these days.”
