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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: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 25 2022, @06:32PM (4 children)
Around here, the narrative is that when traffic volume went down during the pandemic, risk taking went up. Fewer people on the roads, but those that are out there are driving more recklessly. Personally, in 2019 my local interstate hops used to run 75-80mph in posted 65mph zones, and that would move with the bulk of traffic. These days, it runs more 75-90mph with more than the occasional outlier well above 90mph, and often a group of 15-20 cars all doing about 90mph in the posted 65mph zone.
I understand Georgia is "cracking down" on speed now, at least that's what they're advertising - never seen it for myself in real-life except as revenue generation in the smaller towns.
I'd be all for a stricter interpretation of the speed limit, if the speed limit somewhat reflected how the roads have been used for the past 50 years... Move the limit up to 80mph on clear sunny days, then enforce that limit exactly. And, above all else, get those troopers some decent rain gear and have them write citations for speeds inappropriate for conditions when conditions warrant them - not fat revenue generators at $200+$12/mph over the limit - simple $50 moving violations that get the message across: yes, you are the asshole for weaving through traffic at 90mph in the rain, kindly quit it.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2022, @07:42PM
> yes, you are the asshole for weaving through traffic at 90mph in the rain, kindly quit it.
That's what the cops do around here...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Monday July 25 2022, @08:00PM (1 child)
There is some element of truth to that. The cannonball run records from the pandemic era are unlikely to be broken in our lifetimes.
Here in Tennessee, I'd wager our incident/fatality numbers have increased in correlation to population increases. We've had significant immigration in our major metros and their adjacent counties beyond anything highway planners could have seen coming.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 25 2022, @09:55PM
We certainly have our share of fresh immigrants around here (from other parts of the states) - about 30,000 new residents annually added to the local population of ~1.3M for the past several years. Even with over 3% population growth since the pandemic began, traffic is less intense than it was in 2019 - more work from home, more flexible schedules, etc.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday July 27 2022, @06:22AM
When I first drove the legal 80mph highways out west, it was paradise. Drivers actually stayed right except to pass. Big trailers either couldn't or didn't want to go that speed. They stayed right at 70 or 75 and you could easily pass them.
Just recently I took such a trip through Nevada and Utah, and it seems like people have gotten used to 80mph limits in the bad way. All the old habits are back now: lane hogging at 78mph in the passing lane. Elephant crawl passes at 80.1 mph when you've got the cruise control on 80. High speed packs. All the stupidity you used to see at 70mph is there at 80 now.
Take away all the limits on those desert straights. Enforce lane discipline, not speed and let God and the NV and UT highway patrols sort it out.
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