On Friday, Grist and Biking L.A. brought up a shocking statistic: 33, 963 Americans died in car crashes last year. That is such a large number and it's hard to put that into context, so Biking LA brought it down to a understandable scale using the Chilean miner story:

In the 10 weeks since the 33 miners were trapped ... over 6,500 people died on American streets, based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In the same period, roughly 850 pedestrians and 140 bicyclists were killed in motor vehicle collisions ...

And no one even noticed.

No massive press response. No live coverage. ...

Those same statistics tell us that of the millions of people who will leave their homes today, 93 won't return. ...

It's just collateral damage. The price we've come to accept for the privilege of getting from here to there. 93 people every day. 651 every week. 2,830 every month.

With Obama's announcement for $50 Billion in spending on transportation infrastructure, it's time we consider these figures and where the money needs to go.

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