What does a journalist think when he writes something like "biggest spike in traffic death in 50 years"? The NYT even has a nice plot, that clearly shows that there are two, perhaps three significant, spikes in traffic death, and overall traffic death were reduced to a third of the late seventies. I mean I just eyeball the plot, but to me it seems the story is that there is a plateau since ~2010.
Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
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Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#12As an aside, sometimes I wonder about how much more efficient we are today due to smartphones. Places where we've lost time:
- at the stoplight, the driver in front of you is too busy looking down to notice the light has changed
- in the bathroom, people check social media on the toilet
- on the sidewalk, folks walk slower because they're pre-occupied with texting
- meeting up with friends, it's more acceptable to be late because one can always send a last minute update, "I'll be there in 10 minutes!" (read: just got on lyft)
- even talking with people present: "Sorry, could you please repeat that? I was just responding to an email."
I know of digital detoxes (gag), but the inevitable seems to be this distracted-presence as our new reality (until we go full virtual-reality).
Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#13Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
New Zealand too. If you want to make calls while driving, you have to have a hands-free system. It baffles my mind that there are countries in which people can legally interact with their phone while driving.
I'm surprised people are allowed to use their phones at all; there is a study showing talking on a hands free causes the same attention impairment level as someone under the influence of alcohol.
So you are saying, talking to a passenger "causes the same attention impairment level as someone under the influence of alcohol."?
For sure there is a distraction, but it is definitely not on the level you described.
Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#15We need automatic driving so people can remain connected.
Volvo has the right vision. See their commercial.[1]
(\Volvo is about to be the first with production automatic driving. Next year, Volvo will put 100 self-driving cars on the road with real customers driving. They'll only self-drive on certain roads in Gothenburg at first. The user is not required to watch the road, and if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts full responsibility. Tesla talks big, but Volvo gets it and has it.
Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#16Blame apps? No, that's secondary. Blame smartphones. Perhaps that too is secondary. Blame humans.
Smartphones, and mobile phones in general, make drivers less attentive to external events while driving. It was fine before that, so I don't see why you think we should be blaming humans?
Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#17The UK, Germany and Austria have banned the use of phones in cars entirely with a whitelist of permitted uses (like passively using it for navigation). I am pretty sure that is something that is happening all over Europe now.
New Zealand too. If you want to make calls while driving, you have to have a hands-free system. It baffles my mind that there are countries in which people can legally interact with their phone while driving.
In many states it's illegal to interact with your phone while driving, but there's no technological enforcement mechanism, or federal law.
Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
New Zealand too. If you want to make calls while driving, you have to have a hands-free system. It baffles my mind that there are countries in which people can legally interact with their phone while driving.
I'm surprised people are allowed to use their phones at all; there is a study showing talking on a hands free causes the same attention impairment level as someone under the influence of alcohol.
We should also ban people talking to their passengers.
Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
New Zealand too. If you want to make calls while driving, you have to have a hands-free system. It baffles my mind that there are countries in which people can legally interact with their phone while driving.
I'm surprised people are allowed to use their phones at all; there is a study showing talking on a hands free causes the same attention impairment level as someone under the influence of alcohol.
I'd be interested to see the impairment caused by looking at a paper map :). I'll be very surprised if it's less than Google Maps.
Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps
#20We need automatic driving so people can remain connected. Volvo has the right vision. See their commercial.[1] (\Volvo is about to be the first with production automatic driving. Next year, Volvo will put 100 self-driving cars on the road with real customers driving. They'll only self-drive on certain roads in Gothenburg at first. The user is not required to watch the road, and if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts f…
if anything goes wrong, Volvo accepts full responsibility
Nice comfort I'm sure as you lie in your casket.