New working paper posted on recent US experiences with fare-free transit service:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Moonlight and artificial light might offer different safety benefits. Streetlights provide ~30× more illumination than the brightest moon. My estimates probably understate the impact of full street lighting. Even very small increases in road illumination significantly improve pedestrian safety.

I find that pedestrian deaths fall 5% nationally when the moon is at its brightest. In areas without cloud cover, the effect is 17%. In rural areas with low artificial lighting, the effect is nearly 40%!

The moon’s brightness changes nightly due to its phase, distance, and other factors. Our calendar is not set by the moon’s phase, so across years the moon’s brightness is changing randomly with respect to the day of the year or week. I use this as a natural experiment.

Nighttime pedestrian deaths have DOUBLED since 2009. Understanding the causes of nighttime pedestrian deaths has become increasingly important.

My paper, Road Illumination and Nighttime Pedestrian Deaths: Evidence from Moonlight, is now published at Economics of Transportation. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kptw_oIvi...

The moon’s brightness changes nightly due to its phase, distance, and other factors. Our calendar is not set by the moon’s phase, so across years the moon’s brightness is changing randomly with respect to the day of the year or week. I use this as a natural experiment.

Nighttime pedestrian deaths have DOUBLED since 2009. Understanding the causes of nighttime pedestrian deaths has become increasingly important.

🫡

www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

Prior econ studies have not directly tested for a relationship between front-end height and pedestrian outcomes due to data limitations. I combine crash data with actual vehicle measurements of front-end height by linking data sets through VINs.

One reason large vehicles are so dangerous for pedestrians could be due to tall front-end designs. Tall front-ends often make first contact with a pedestrian’s torso or head, increasing the severity of the crash.

Using recent crash-level data, I show that a pedestrian hit by a full-size SUV is twice as likely to die compared to being struck by a car, under similar crash conditions.

My new paper, The effect of front-end vehicle height on pedestrian death risk, was just published at #Economics of #Transportation. I use vehicle design measurements to test for the effect of taller vehicles on pedestrian outcomes in crashes. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...