Traffic deaths plague poor and rural areas of the US. How do we fix that? | The Excerpt

Safe Streets and Roads for All is a new federal program that’s supposed to help communities fix dangerous streets and reduce traffic deaths. But USA TODAY Investigative Data Reporter Austin Fast found most of the money has been awarded in more affluent counties with lower fatality rates. Plus, hundreds of millions of dollars have gone unawarded, simply because the program has not gotten enough applications. Despite that, the U.S. Department of Transportation hadn’t directly encouraged hard-hit communities to apply until the past couple months, when USA TODAY began asking questions. #podcast #traffic #safety