At September's Transit Camp Bay Area, I met Simon Ilyushchenko from Google, who was analyzing fatal U.S. collision data.  He recently posted some of his findings and I thought I'd pass them along.

You can get everything from The Days are Numbered blog: Fatal US car collisions, 2005-2007.  The Google Earth view (linked on the page) has separate layers that show pedestrian and bicycle accidents.

One of the notable findings is that the states with the most fatal collisions per capita tend to be the most rural ones.

Here's a map that shows states with the most fatal collisions per capita in red:

The map above looks somewhat similar to the percentage of rural population:

My best guess (and Simon's) is that in urban places, people tend to drive less, and use other options more.

This safety problem is a big challenge for rural places and for Green Wheels.  I've noticed a lot of excitement and momentum developing around urban renewal and the development of complete streets and world-class transit in U.S. cities because it's easier to implement successful efforts there and because they'll reach more people.  I would say there's not as much attention being paid to rural transportation issues by big advocacy groups and polititians.

But there a lot of people in less urban places, too (like Humboldt), and their lives and safety matter too.