Amid a politically charged year, our national road toll quietly pushed into the 1300s, marking a fifth consecutive year of rising road deaths.

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To see numbers this high, we have to go back to 2010 or earlier. That's a 15-year regression in road safety.

And no; this isn't a lingering "pandemic effect" or a return to some pre-pandemic baseline. We are well past that explanation.

So what's actually driving this rise? One signal in the data is impossible to ignore.

The increase is no longer coming from drivers or passengers. Their fatality numbers have largely plateaued. The growth is being driven by vulnerable road users; and pedestrians in particular.

Pedestrian deaths jumped from 168 to 207 year-on-year. The last time Australia recorded more than 200 pedestrian deaths in a year was 2007.

And this is not a state-specific problem. Every state except the Northern Territory recorded sharp increases: Victoria up 6.3 per cent, Tasmania 25 per cent, Queensland 27 per cent, NSW 46 per cent, South Australia 50 per cent, and Western Australia a staggering 75 per cent.

When we talk about rising road deaths, it's easy to lump all road users together and miss what's actually happening. Not all modes are bearing the same burden.

Yes, drivers and passengers still account for more deaths in absolute numbers; but that risk has largely plateaued. For pedestrians, it clearly hasn't. And the picture isn't much better for cyclists and motorcyclists either.

What we're seeing in Australia is uncomfortably reminiscent of the patterns in United States; just at a smaller scale and with a time lag.

In the US, driver and passenger deaths have relatively plateaued for 15 years, while pedestrian and cyclist fatalities have surged over the same period, erasing decades of hard-won safety progress.

And let's not reach for the easy explanation that pedestrians - especially young people - are simply........

© Canberra Times