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from the what-about-the-road-less-traveled? dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
We all became familiar with the idea of "bending a curve" thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it seems another US curve needs bending: that of US traffic fatalities, which have been up strongly and abnormally over the last couple of years. The low-hanging fruit when it comes to changing that might not be in the car as much as around it.
[...] Thanks in large part to in-car safety tech like airbags, antilock brakes, stability control and, more recently, automatic emergency braking, US traffic fatalities have generally been on a long decline since 1970. The 52,000 such deaths recorded 52 years ago shrank to 36,000 in 2019 even as the US population and vehicle miles driven both increased dramatically. But 2020 and 2021 saw the biggest spike in over 50 years to a total of almost 43,000 per year, turning the roadway fatality clock back to 2002. In short, something's not working as well as it did.
"We need regulations related to vehicle design and street design," says Yonah Freemark, senior research associate at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on urban mobility and equity. "Those two play a really important role in how likely people are to get killed in streets, especially pedestrians (and cyclists) that are struck by cars."
Speed cameras are common in several countries outside the US, often using technology that calculates average speed of a given vehicle based on the time stamps when it passes two or more places on the roadway.
In-vehicle safety technologies that protect occupants have only become more prevalent over the last couple of years, so Freemark looks at pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in collisions with cars as the next key area for improvement. Three-quarters of US auto buyers select a light truck that is typically heavier and larger than the sedan or coupe they may have chosen as their previous purchase, a formula for a more brutal impact with someone outside of the vehicle. In the future, many more electric cars will be sold and their well-known weight problem could exacerbate the seriousness of collisions.
[...] That difference plays out when you compare roadway fatality stats outside the US. "Over the last 20 years or so we've seen quite a divergence between other developed countries, like France," Freemark said of a comparison he's focused on. He noted other countries' taxation schemes that disincentivize the purchase of large, heavy vehicles as well as automatic speeding cameras and the presence of far more traffic circles that still befuddle most US drivers.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @03:45PM (30 children)
> "We need regulations related to vehicle design and street design ...
No we don't. We need the cops to rigorously enforce distracted driving laws/regulations that are already on the books, starting with smart phone usage in moving vehicles.
I'm a cyclist and I approved this message!
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @03:55PM (6 children)
Much good it will do to (the dead) you, with the last 6y models of cars essentially being smart-phones that incidentally have wheels and can be driven.
(Score: 5, Informative) by NateMich on Monday July 25 2022, @04:49PM (4 children)
No, he's right about this. Any remotely modern car has Bluetooth, but instead I see morons holding their phones up to their faces and wandered all over their lane literally every day.
We already have the laws and the technology to solve this, but we're allowing people to do it anyway.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fraxinus-tree on Monday July 25 2022, @05:18PM (3 children)
You are saying that Bluetooth is a solution for the distracted driving problem? No it is not. We got to the point when the phone alone is not enough distraction, so the car has to distract the driver, too. Less infotainment in the car, PLEASE!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Monday July 25 2022, @07:11PM (2 children)
And block touchscreens when the car is in motion. Provide real physical controls for anything that should be frobbable while driving.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fraxinus-tree on Monday July 25 2022, @08:23PM
Some 10 years ago I fixed my wife's erratic driving by swapping our cars. Absolutely identical cars, except mine didn't have radio / cassette / cd player. 3 cars later the recipe works flawlessly: the radios aren't removed easily anymore, but their fuses are just as easy to find and pull out.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Monday July 25 2022, @09:16PM
Put effin' BUTTONS back into the damn cars!
You reach over to the button and you can feel where it is. The second button from the left does X, the next one does Y. You know that after using the care for a week. Tops. You don't need to take your eyes off the road anymore, you just KNOW what the button does, and you can simply brush your fingers across them and count to the second, then press it. You even get tactile feedback that the button was pressed and you know you pressed the right one.
Touchscreens REQUIRE you to look at them to find the button and also to visually verify that you actually pressed it.
Get rid of the damn touchscreens. They're bad enough on phones, we sure as fuck don't need them in cars!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 25 2022, @09:45PM
Teslas will soon get Steam.
How long before other smart-phones on wheels also get in car gaming and other distractions?
Other drivers that you hit while distracted should be held accountable!
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 5, Informative) by epitaxial on Monday July 25 2022, @04:22PM (9 children)
The cops are essentially doing a work stoppage because they're upset about the public wanting them held accountable for their actions. The police problem stems from warrior training. https://harvardlawreview.org/2015/04/law-enforcements-warrior-problem/ [harvardlawreview.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @05:11PM (1 child)
Warrior training? This US veteran got fired for not being trigger happy enough by US cop standards: https://www.npr.org/2016/12/08/504718239/military-trained-police-may-be-slower-to-shoot-but-that-got-this-vet-fired [npr.org]
US soldiers are not famous for their restraint (in fact more like the opposite). So you're doing it very wrong if your cops are more trigger happy than US soldiers.
(Score: 5, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 25 2022, @10:52PM
https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/8/14/6002211/battlestar-galactica-had-the-perfect-argument-for-keeping-police-and [vox.com]
"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state. The other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2, Insightful) by HammeredGlass on Monday July 25 2022, @05:54PM (3 children)
Nope, nothing to do with society telling cops not to arrest criminals.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @06:32PM (2 children)
Are you being sarcastic? I hope so, because literally many cops are being told to not stop and ticket people for many driving infractions.
(Score: 2) by HammeredGlass on Monday July 25 2022, @06:41PM (1 child)
I am being sarcastic. Have a great day.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @07:15PM
Thanks for clarifying. You get upmod. Many people get downmodded due to misunderstood sarcasm.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by sjames on Monday July 25 2022, @07:29PM (2 children)
The interesting part is that there are actually a number of jobs that carry a much higher risk of injury or death. The police aren't even in the top 10.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @01:40PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:58PM
Hmm, I never actually thought about it. 4 of the 46 US presidents were assassinated. I would say that's a fairly high mortality rate compared to most/all other professions/positions. I mean, if you count the president as a politician, then the mortality rate would be much lower over all politicians.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday July 25 2022, @04:39PM (9 children)
You might be a cyclist but you're an idiot.
- When an SUV barrels goes out of control, it's very likely to cause a lot more damage and fatalities than a small European or Japanese econobox. US:0 / EU:1
- When roads are designed with cycling in mind, particularly segregated cycling lanes or - like the Netherlands - a completely separate cycling network, the cyclists don't get an SUV or an econobox in the face in the first place. US:0 / EU: 2
- Automatic speed traps work - see France, Germany, and most of Europe. No need for cops: the offenders get their fine in the mail. US: 0 / EU: 3
Etc etc.
I suggest you go visit Europe and see what a country with an active government working for its citizenry is like, unlike the US.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday July 25 2022, @04:58PM (6 children)
I don't think what you propose is a reasonable solution. There are areas where it could work, and separated bicycle/pedestrian right of ways are definitely better where they are possible. Unfortunately, the number of bicyclists is rather small in most of the country, so that would be quite difficult to justify. I don't really have a good solution. Bicycle lanes are a truly lousy approach. I think they cause as many problems as they solve. But separate ways are impossible in most places.
Traffic circles could be a reasonable approach to streamlining traffic flow, but not with any design I've seen. The idea of using them in a compact form is a bad idea. The denser and faster the traffic, the larger they would need to be to make things better. Eventually one would end up with elevated loops that would feed traffic in to them in a central loop, and have traffic exit at the outer edge. It could be done quite well, but a cloverleaf would probably do just as well, and take up less space. (Still, if you had six or more exits, it might make SOME sense.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 25 2022, @07:01PM (2 children)
Sorry, but no, cloverleafs aren't a replacement for roundabouts. Cloverleafs are a good answer for restricted access roads like our interstates. They are a passing good answer for some lesser restricted access highways. Not so much good for much of anything else.
Actually, cloverleafs take up more room than a roundabout with the same traffic capacity.
Neither solution is likely to ever be adopted for suburban and downtown intersections, but roundabouts make a lot more sense.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday July 25 2022, @08:24PM (1 child)
I didn't say they were a good answer for the typical location in which roundabouts are used, just that they were better than roundabouts.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday July 25 2022, @09:21PM
Roundabouts slow traffic down at intersections - that's a good thing.
(Score: 5, Touché) by sjames on Monday July 25 2022, @07:33PM (2 children)
There may be a chicken and egg problem. Perhaps there WOULD be more cyclists if they didn't have to contend with coal rolling monster trucks.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday July 25 2022, @08:31PM
That's only partially true. Yeah, when street traffic is such that bicycles are suppressed, it's a chicken and egg problem, but in many suburban areas that used to be fairly bicycle friendly, increasing traffic without a redesign has caused bicycles to become unreasonably dangerous. It's not just a chicken and egg problem, also involved is that the need for cars is sufficiently strong that just about everyone who qualifies for a driver's license feels a need to own their own car, and once they have that, it's a lot easier and safer to use that than to use a bicycle. Even when I was a kid I was an outlier because I didn't WANT to drive. But I was certainly made aware of all the reasons most people did.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 25 2022, @10:57PM
The real problem with cycling around here is: weather.
Cycle to work in the morning and you'll need a shower when you get there. I did that for a time in Houston, showers were just steps from my desk so why not? But.... in the afternoons, you never know when it will be A) sweltering hot or B) torrential thunderstorm downpouring, and occasionally you get the thrill of trying to race through A) to beat B) to your home.
Couple that with the existential threat of a lifetime of paralysis or other gruesome disability handed out by someone(s) paying too little attention whilst navigating their 6000lb land-ship in your vicinity, and.... nope, just not worth deep-breathing the exhaust fumes for all that.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Monday July 25 2022, @05:22PM
EU imposes some impressive taxes on fuels. A lot of EU people get the message and do much less mileage per capita than US, using smaller, slower and safer cars. US: 0 / EU: 4
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @06:01PM
e-Bicycling to/from is the best part of my day. Seriously people are missing out on (a) no more gym, (b) best parking, (c) the sheer joy of being 10 again. C'mon guys, gotta try it.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday July 26 2022, @08:03AM (2 children)
So you think the US are the only country where people have smartphones?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @05:57PM (1 child)
Of course not, but TFA is specifically about US highway safety--it's in the title!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday July 27 2022, @05:09AM
But the point of the article is the difference to other countries. It is not reasonable to assume that something that is the same in other countries is responsible for the differences to other countries.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.