We’ve really struggled as a society, nay, as a nation to keep cars from hitting and killing people who are getting around on foot. You’d honestly think that the pandemic — with less cars driving around because we couldn’t go anywhere — would have lowered pedestrian deaths. It didn’t. In fact, wide open roads with no traffic and a need to connect with anything while driving (people on their phone) caused an increase, even reaching record levels. The good news is that trend has changed, with traffic deaths on the downward trend. But it’s not some special implementation of a car safety technology or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s half-assed solution of “defensive walking.” Nope. It’s simply what goes up must come down, and the pandemic’s ridiculous numbers have finally experienced a drop.

Rewinding back to 2020, when the entire world was participating in what felt like a science fiction plotline and confined to our homes or face death, we had a couple of options to get us out of the house “safely.” People were walking more, or riding bikes. Motorcycle sales also went up as a quintessential device for escapism. But the near apocalyptically empty roads also invited drivers to try their hands at things they could never do if normal traffic patterns existed. Yes there were more people out and about walking, but reckless behaviors in vehicles also went up despite the amount of vehicles on the road going down, and it cost human lives.

Numbers collected by the Governors Highway Safety Association and released at the end of March showed an 11 percent drop in pedestrian fatalities from 2024 to 2025 — 3,395 to 3,024 deaths. It’s more notable when 2025’s numbers were compared to its peak pandemic death year in 2022 at 3,526 deaths.

The significant decrease could be attributed to more cars are on the road, especially as businesses force employees back into the office. Congested traffic patterns tend to make it more difficult to do stupid dangerous things in places you’re not supposed to. There’s also been increased efforts to make areas more pedestrian-friendly so when cars returned to the road, it was simply a little harder to hit people.

But even with this small victory in the books it might not last as gas prices, vehicle costs, car insurance, and everything has begun to force Americans to chose between driving and walking. And as Vox pointed out it’s not been limited to metro areas with ample public transport, but rural areas where individuals are forced to walk along two-lane highways with no sidewalk and only a foot of shoulder separating their human body from massive vehicles going over 55 mph. With nothing to protect rural pedestrians from something the size of a full-size truck in 2026 going that fast, there’s a good chance as the economy suffers again, pedestrians could too.