One of the more difficult positions to articulate in the sustainable development field is the idea that bleak suburban sprawl and knee-jerk asphalt "solutions" to transportation puzzles are largely the result of America's relatively inexpensive gas prices over the course of many decades, (Inexpensive? Consider Europe: According to Great Britain's Automobile Association, the petrol price there in early May was about 95 pence per liter, which converted to about $6.50 U.S. per gallon.)
Maybe higher gas prices - - and the resultant change in traveling habits - - will be easier to swallow when fatalities begin to decrease in dramatic fashion:
Highway crashes have killed 322 people through the first six months of the year, or 27 fewer than over the same time a year ago, according to preliminary data from Wisconsin's Department of Transportation.
Evidence suggests high gas prices are causing people to slow down and drive fewer miles, factors in the drop in fatalities, said Daniel Lonsdorf, director of the state Bureau of Transportation Safety.
"We are encouraged that something has changed behaviors," he said. "It's sad that it takes $3 a gallon gasoline to get people to live."
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