cars

When the United States started demanding that cars swig less fuel, critics argued that the efficiency standards, because they lower the cars’ weight, would make them more vulnerable in an accident. But a new paper challenges that theory, arguing that efficiency standards are likely saving lives.

By their very nature, city streets are filled with a broad spectrum of users, from children walking with their parents all the way up to tractor-trailer trucks, which can weigh 80,000 pounds or more. With such an immense disparity in size, those outside motorized vehicles are the ones most likely to suffer in a crash — in 2008, more than 5,000 pedestrians and cyclists were killed by vehicles in the United States, and more than 120,000 were injured.