The Good News: The federal department of transportation announced today that, according to crash statistics, American roads are the safest they've been since 1950. Deaths declined 9.7 percent since 2008.

The Bad News: There's still 33,808 traffic fatalities a year. That's insane. It's roughly the amount of people who would die if 65 Boeing 747s crashed. And one of the main reasons for the decrease is that people are driving to work less, in part because fewer people have jobs. So it's not that people are driving more safely, it's that fewer people are driving at all.

Ironically, on the day this "safest roads" news was announced, a man was struck on NE Sandy and 97th by a Ford Escape SUV. The drivers weren't drunk but the guy (who was 100 feet from a crosswalk) is now in the hospital in critical condition. Even if people drive safely, our roads are dangerous by design.