The True Cost of Roadkill: Cars Have Caused 60 to 80 Million Deaths in the Last 100 Years

The numbers are mind blowing. According to Roadkill authors Henrietta Moore and Arthur Kay, cars have killed more people than both world wars combined. That’s how toxic our relationship with cars has been over the last century, they argue. The UN figures they cite—60 to 80 million direct deaths since the automobile’s invention—don’t even include premature deaths from air pollution or the millions seriously injured. Yet we’ve become “car blind,” Moore and Kay contend, unable to see how we’ve surrendered 80% of urban public space to vehicles that sit idle 96% of the time, creating what they call a hidden “car industrial complex” that reshapes cities in its image. So what to do? They advocate for “choice not obligation”—redesigning cities so people can drive if they want but aren’t forced to. They point to successful experiments from Barcelona’s superblocks to Dallas’s highway cap parks, where reclaimed streets have actually increased business revenue by up to 34% in some cases. Their goal isn’t to ban cars but to stop letting them dominate every aspect of urban planning and life.

1. The Deadly Math of “Car Blindness” Cars have directly killed 60-80 million people since their invention—more than WWI and WWII combined. Yet we’ve normalized this death toll and become “car blind” to how thoroughly automobiles dominate our lives, with 80% of urban public space dedicated to vehicles that sit unused 96% of the time.

2. Electric and Self-Driving Cars Aren’t Silver Bullets Moore and Kay argue that EVs and autonomous vehicles like Waymo don’t solve the fundamental problem: they’re still cars taking up urban space. Plus, EVs bring their own issues—from lithium extraction devastating places like Chile’s Atacama Desert to the question of whether electricity generation is actually clean.

3. “Choice Not Obligation” - A New Freedom Framework The authors aren’t advocating car bans but rather redesigning cities so driving becomes optional rather than mandatory. They argue true 21st-century freedom means being able to walk to school safely, access nearby shops, and move through cities without car dependence—not just the 20th-century freedom to drive anywhere.

4. Global South Solutions Leading the Way Surprisingly, innovations aren’t coming from Copenhagen but from places like Nairobi’s matatu system (on-demand informal transit) and Dallas’s highway “cap parks.” These demonstrate that car reduction isn’t just for wealthy European cities but can work across diverse economic contexts.

5. Follow the Money - It Actually Works When done properly, reducing car dominance boosts business. Times Square restaurants saw revenue jump 34% after pedestrianization. The key is integrated planning with communities rather than top-down mandates, ensuring alternatives exist before removing parking.

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