If anyone's noticed, cars these days come loaded with what I would consider excessive safety features. Driver assist technology parks your car and steers you back to the center of your lane and even slams on the brakes for you. There's a little light that comes on to tell you if a car is next to you, which duh, you could also just look.
And yet, American crash fatalities hit a 16-year high in 2021. Compared to other countries, which drive more/less the same cars with the same safety features, Americans are 2-5 times more likely to die in a car accident.
Adding more safety features isn't working to address increasing traffic fatalities. Automated vehicles won't solve this problem, at least in the near term. The big difference between American roadways vs. the rest of the world is speed limit. Slow down the cars. It's simple, cheap and buzzer-free.
19 Jul 23
@wildgrass
They should stop texting on their smartphones while driving.
“Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel…”
— Jim Morrison.
@wildgrass saidThe problem is not with safety features the issue is that Americans are irresponsible. The U.S. ranks third in the world for drunk driving incidents:
If anyone's noticed, cars these days come loaded with what I would consider excessive safety features. Driver assist technology parks your car and steers you back to the center of your lane and even slams on the brakes for you. There's a little light that comes on to tell you if a car is next to you, which duh, you could also just look.
And yet, American crash fatalities ...[text shortened]... ys vs. the rest of the world is speed limit. Slow down the cars. It's simple, cheap and buzzer-free.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/08/11/the-worst-countries-in-the-world-for-drunk-driving-infographic/?sh=75bdc1fc2f5c
In addition there's been an increase in shooting deaths from road-rage:
https://everytownresearch.org/reports-of-road-rage-shootings-are-on-the-rise/
I'd say the last thing we'd want is for Americans to have less safety features.
19 Jul 23
@moonbus saidAgreed, less irresponsible driving.
@wildgrass
They should stop texting on their smartphones while driving.
“Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel…”
— Jim Morrison.
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19 Jul 23
@wildgrass saiddefund the police ought to do it. 😂
If anyone's noticed, cars these days come loaded with what I would consider excessive safety features. Driver assist technology parks your car and steers you back to the center of your lane and even slams on the brakes for you. There's a little light that comes on to tell you if a car is next to you, which duh, you could also just look.
And yet, American crash fatalities ...[text shortened]... ys vs. the rest of the world is speed limit. Slow down the cars. It's simple, cheap and buzzer-free.
19 Jul 23
@wildgrass saidIn the US the speed limits are ridiculously low.
If anyone's noticed, cars these days come loaded with what I would consider excessive safety features. Driver assist technology parks your car and steers you back to the center of your lane and even slams on the brakes for you. There's a little light that comes on to tell you if a car is next to you, which duh, you could also just look.
And yet, American crash fatalities ...[text shortened]... ys vs. the rest of the world is speed limit. Slow down the cars. It's simple, cheap and buzzer-free.
Some German motorways don’t have speed limits, French and Dutch motorways are 130km/h.
Etc.
16 year olds getting driving licenses with little training is part of the problem.
In Australia they discovered, years ago, that men younger than 26 have a deficiency in guessing distances. When they started training this, they decreased road accidents.
@wildgrass saidThe problem is not really that speed limits in the US are too lax per se. That's just one factor. Australia allows travel at 25 mph in school zones, while most if not all US states set the limit at 15 mph. Obviously throwing up a sign on the roadside with an arbitrary number on it is no panacea.
If anyone's noticed, cars these days come loaded with what I would consider excessive safety features. Driver assist technology parks your car and steers you back to the center of your lane and even slams on the brakes for you. There's a little light that comes on to tell you if a car is next to you, which duh, you could also just look.
And yet, American crash fatalities ...[text shortened]... ys vs. the rest of the world is speed limit. Slow down the cars. It's simple, cheap and buzzer-free.
The fact is that US cities and towns are built around cars, not people. There are many reasons for this, but I won't remark on them here.
Some of the problems contributing to the carnage on US highways and streets are these:
1) A proliferation of big, stupid-ass SUVs and pick-up trucks.
These gas-guzzlers that often keep their owners so cash-poor they can't afford to eat anywhere that lacks a drive-thru are far more common on US roads than just about anywhere else. They're less maneuverable than regular cars, cannot stop as quickly, have a tendency to roll over, and blind drivers to anything (including children) who might be within two meters of the vehicle. Now, I do not usually give links to YouTube videos, but a very informative (not to mention funny) take-down of these rolling dinosaurs can be found here (runtime ~35 minutes):
2) Stroads.
A stroad is a kind of Frankenstein thoroughfare that is part street and part highway. They are almost uniquely North American and terribly dangerous. Like the link above, this one about stroads is from the "Not Just Bikes" channel on YouTube, which is a goldmine of accessible, humorous, and informative videos about transportation infrastructure in North America and Europe (runtime ~18 minutes):
3) Few roundabouts: America can't circle the square.
In Europe and most civilized countries roundabouts are common. Not so in 'Murica. But roundabouts are not only more efficient than traditional right-angle intersections, they also are designed to make high-velocity head-on or T-bone collisions impossible. They are traffic-calming, and give the right-of-way to traffic on the roundabout—so they're not the enormous "traffic circles" one might encounter in a few US states, which gets the logic ass-backward.
4) American streets are built the same way regardless of the desired speed limit.
European cities very often construct streets so as to make a speed limit of, say, 25 mph seem sensible, even if a sign isn't around stating this limit. In America streets with such a speed limit are routinely constructed to enable easy travel at twice the limit, setting up a clearly dangerous situation, and also engendering the adversarial "cops vs. drivers" dynamic that fosters a general contempt for traffic laws. The "Not Just Bikes" channel (which takes a particular interest in Dutch cities) has a few videos about this, so browse around here:
https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustBikes/videos
Oh, here's a 5-minute video about traffic calming in the Netherlands that I happened to find before submitting this post:
5) Poor public transportation infrastructure
I think we all know about this one. Compared to most other countries, the US is in the Stone Age when it comes to public transportation. This is what happens when a country isn't really a country, but instead a congeries of independently-operating fiefdoms (states and municipalities) that are informed strictly by short-term or narrow visions. It's why the US has never mastered the metric system, and can't get its act together on things like healthcare. But the point is that public transport is always safer than riding in one's own personal metal box on wheels
There are many, many more factors than the five listed above. Zoning regulations in the US are out of whack, so that where people live is generally quite far from where they need to shop. Bicyclists have few safe places to ride. The list goes on.
19 Jul 23
@wildgrass
"Giving car keys and whiskey to teenage boys is like giving money and power to government"
P J O'Rourke
What you should be really concerned about.
@wajoma saidhuh?
@wildgrass
"Giving car keys and whiskey to teenage boys is like giving money and power to government"
P J O'Rourke
What you should be really concerned about.
@vivify saidWe can't stop the irresponsibility you describe. Drunk driving has been subject to a huge penalty for as long as I can remember, compared to what i would consider a comparable crime of texting while driving.
The problem is not with safety features the issue is that Americans are irresponsible. The U.S. ranks third in the world for drunk driving incidents:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/08/11/the-worst-countries-in-the-world-for-drunk-driving-infographic/?sh=75bdc1fc2f5c
In addition there's been an increase in shooting deaths from road-rage:
https://ever ...[text shortened]... -are-on-the-rise/
I'd say the last thing we'd want is for Americans to have less safety features.
As far as road rage, the best statistic I could find is 14 deaths per year. But the overall traffic fatalities is >40,000. Sooo. I'm not sure this is a big factor.
@mott-the-hoople saidPolice aren't really preventing in this case. They enforce. But decades of tough enforcement of drunk driving, and additional laws/restrictions on what you can and can't do has not fixed the problem.
defund the police ought to do it. 😂
20 Jul 23
@wajoma saidYeah leave the power in the hands of big corporations and billionaires they’ve definitely got our best interests at heart. To hell with them pesky regulations and health & safety laws 🙄
@wildgrass
"Giving car keys and whiskey to teenage boys is like giving money and power to government"
P J O'Rourke
What you should be really concerned about.
20 Jul 23
@kevcvs57 saidThe thing about big corporations and billionaires kev bamboozle, is that you deal with them by consent, it's goobermint that has a franchise on force and the initiation of force, them and criminal gangs.
Yeah leave the power in the hands of big corporations and billionaires they’ve definitely got our best interests at heart. To hell with them pesky regulations and health & safety laws 🙄
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20 Jul 23
@wildgrass saidwho is going “ to slow the cars down” as you stated?
Police aren't really preventing in this case. They enforce. But decades of tough enforcement of drunk driving, and additional laws/restrictions on what you can and can't do has not fixed the problem.
23 Jul 23
@mott-the-hoople saidThe same folks who currently handle road construction, maintenance and enforcement.
who is going “ to slow the cars down” as you stated?