Duke 2008 | ASHE | Equity and Efficiency in Health and Healthcare

In 2005 there were over 43,500 traffic related fatalities in the U.S. and an estimated 2.7 million non-fatal traffic injuries. The states, often with federal encouragement, have implemented a variety of traffic and driver/rider laws and regulations to try to reduce these events. The efforts have used different policies to affect different segments of the population. This session examines the effects of public policies on three distinct types of traffic injuries: motor vehicle fatalities among young adults, non-fatal injuries among motorcyclists and fatalities among bicyclists. In addition to common policy features such as alcohol taxes and speed limits, the states have implemented polices intended to reduce injuries in each group: graduated driver's licenses for young auto drivers, helmet laws and mandatory rider education programs for motorcyclists and, of course, helmet laws for bicyclists. These studies use fixed-effects and "triple difference" models to isolate the effects of particular laws on injuries. The preliminary results are provocative. Unlike recent research, the motor vehicle analysis finds robust fatality reducing effects of beer taxes on young adults. The motorcycle work finds no statistically significant effects of alcohol policy but substantial effects of helmet laws and education. The bicycle analysis concludes that much of the reduction in bicycle fatalities attributed to mandatory helmet laws results from a marked reduction in youth cycling.