It’s a sad reality of U.S. car culture that traffic crashes claim a lot of lives. So far in 2016, they’re claiming even more than usual.

Traffic fatalities were up nine percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2015, according to preliminary estimates released this week by the nonprofit National Safety Council. From January through the end of June, 19,100 people were killed on U.S. roads and another 2.2 million were also seriously injured. By the end of the year, traffic fatalities could exceed 40,000 for the first time in nine years.

Among the factors influencing the higher traffic fatality toll is the recovering economy. With fewer people unemployed, gas prices low and U.S. auto sales peaking, more people are driving — and crashing. U.S. drivers logged a record one and a half trillion miles in the first half of the year — a 3.3 percent increase over the same period in 2015, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

But cities including L.A. are attempting to reverse the steady uptick of traffic deaths. A member of the Vision Zero Network, L.A. is working to reduce traffic fatalities to zero by 2025. Some of the city’s strategies for achieving such a goal were presented by the city’s Department of Transportation during this week’s Advancing Vision Zero webinar held by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals.

The Vision Zero Network, founded in Sweden,  is dedicated to reducing traffic fatalities to zero by recognizing that crashes are preventable and increasing the urgency of achieving zero traffic deaths.

The United States has the highest incidence per capita of motor vehicle crash deaths among high-income countries — double the rate of Canada and France, according to the 2015 World Health Organization Global Status Report on Road Safety.

In L.A., a majority of traffic crashes occur on a minority of streets. Six percent of L.A. streets account for 65 percent of deaths and serious injuries for people walking and biking. A disproportionate number of injury crashes also occur in low-income communities; almost half of the high injury areas in L.A. are low income, according to the city’s Department of Transportation.

Almost half of the pedestrians who were killed or severely injured in traffic crashes in L.A. were due to a lack of crossing infrastructure; 12 percent of pedestrians and cyclists killed in collisions were at left turn signals.

The L.A. DOT praised the success of its reconfigured, diagonal intersection at Hollywood and Highland. Prior to its installation last November, 13 collisions occurred at the intersection annually. In the six months following its reconfiguration with diagonal crosswalks, collisions there dropped to zero.

Sue Carpenter is co-host of our podcast and series on modern mobility, The Ride.