Gas Prices and Traffic Safety
My colleague and co-author Guangqing Chi on Gas Prices and Traffic Safety on video:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spEpvBSF9UE&w=560&h=315]
Some of the work he is describing is published in these papers:
Chi, Guangchi, Jeremy Porter, Arthur Cosby and David Levinson (2013) The impact of gasoline price changes on traffic safety: a time geography explanation. Journal of Transport Geography Volume 28, April 2013, pp. 1-11 [doi]
Chi, Guangqing, Xuan Zhou, Timothy E. McClure, Paul A. Gilbert, Arthur G. Cosby, Li Zhang, Angela A. Robertson, David Levinson (2011) Gasoline Prices and Their Relationship to Drunk-Driving Crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention, [doi] 43(1) January 2011, Pages 194-203.
Chi, Guangqing, Arthur Cosby, Mohammed A. Quddus, Paul Gilbert and David Levinson (2010) Gasoline Prices and Traffic Safety in Mississippi. Journal of Safety Research 41 493–500.
One interesting policy implication is that as gas prices go up, average insurance rates should go down, since risk is dropping. Whether it goes down by cohort, or just overall as the shares of various cohorts traveling changes, is unclear.