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Notes -
This is definitely an under-recognized consideration. This is data from 2012-2014, but in those years the average number of traffic deaths per year in Manhattan was 40. In Queens it was 93. [Staten Island]9https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/prevention/injury_prevention/traffic/county/richmond/2014/richmond_co_res_fs.pdf) was 17; Brooklyn was 94, and the Bronx was 48. That is 292 per year in a city of 8 million. If the entire US had that traffic death rate, there would have been 12,000 deaths per year, rather that [32,000](https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812246#:~:text=Overall%20Statistics,2013%20(see%20Figure%201). And, no, the numbers don't change much if you add the fifty or so subway deaths per year, most of which were suicides.
PS: I am sure someone will be tempted to respond with a claim about the benefits of cars. Please don't, because I agree with you about the benefits. I merely am noting that traffic deaths is "an under-recognized consideration", not that, on balance, the costs outweigh the benefits.
They're not "under-recognized" because we hear about it them the time. Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio spent years pushing his "Vision Zero Action Plan" and his replacement Eric Adams has been banging on about it too.
It is underrecognized as a** cost of driving **. Obviously, "it would be sound public policy to reduce traffic deaths" is a common sentiment
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