The measurement is of fatal collisions in Santa Barbara County. The other measurement is of the persons injured from traffic and automobiles. The other two charts are of the fatalities and injuries inflicted upon bicyclists and pedestrians. The charts plot the measured information. The information is from the California Highway Patrol.

The information is important because it symbolizes the automobile dependency in the community. The trends in fatal and nonfatal accidents may be crucial to implementing traffic-calming strategies. If we access the information properly, we can determine the need for stricter law enforcement, more bicycle lanes and traffic diverting measures to avoid congestion.

The graphs both demonstrate an overall beneficial progression. The amount of fatal collisions in the Santa Barbara County has been increasing over the last few years. The fatal collision data is promising when compared to the base year of 1988. The persons injured data in Santa Barbara County is looking very productive, with the exception of 1996. The trends show that Santa Barbara County is doing well. The fatalities and injuries against bicyclists are oscillating. The pedestrian injuries and fatalities have fallen every following year. This shows that people are becoming safer, drivers are slowing down and the result is dropping deleterious results.