That’s the number that matters. When you have more people on the road or more miles driven, declining to incorporate some notion of exposure is just fraud.

That is why anti-motorist activists like the big number. It distorts reality in their favor.

Look at the past few decades of fatalities per 100 million miles traveled, and you’ll see phenomenal safety improvements.

No, that number is up significantly

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_...

but same as 2020.

Good point. So the article mentions the deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. In 2021 it was 1.33, down slightly from 1.34 in 2020. However, I recall that in 2020 the deaths per VMT jumped up.[1]

[edit] changed 2022 to 2020

[1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/191641/traffic-related-f...

I cannot find a 2021 graph of US gasoline consumption for that year or this year.