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Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

nytimes.com

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Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#231

Post by nommm-nommm »

et-al wrote: post #108
edgyswingset wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My one and only experience using Uber was with a driver who had no clue where anything was, clearly wasn't from around the place, and from what I could tell violated two traffic laws. So what do I do, give him a bad rating? No, because this person probably needed the money, and a rating under 4.5 gets you shitcanned in an already rigged system. Quite the revolution indeed.

If your driver violated two traffic laws, you should most definitely rate them poorly. They're a hazard for everyone on the road and should reconsider their line of work. No one is entitled to any job, especially a job that can very easily kill other people. There's a reason why many work vehicles have "how's my driving?" stickers on the back.

Those kinda amuse me. Unless you got a passenger the act of taking down all those numbers is very distracting.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#232

Post by nommm-nommm »

brlewis wrote: post #195
throwanem wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drive but rarely, and finally had a chance last month to use my phone's voice-prompted turn-by-turn navigation mode. It was great! Like any human navigator I've ever worked with, except never hesitant or uncertain and always on the ball with the next turn well in advance of reaching it. I really have no idea why anyone would want to navigate by looking at a moving map display. If you know where you're going, you're…

When traversing an intersection with odd angles often the voice prompt will say something like "slight right" for the road I think of as straight ahead, or vice versa. A glance at the map clears these up.

There's one road the gps says "take exit 36" then at the last possible second it says "keep left" which is exit 35 (they share an exit ramp).

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#233

Post by Stubb »

mnw21cam wrote: post #165
Ntrails wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll check my messages at a traffic light, or flick to the next song whilst driving. I don't see any particular danger in these things (apart from possibly angering the poor bugger behind me if I'm slow to notice the lights change). Much like ye olden days of changing a cassette or tuning the radio - there are times and place to pay less attention. People just need to be sensible.

Do that in the UK in front of a police officer, and expect several points on your licence and a fine. You're only allowed to use a distracting device in similar circumstances as you are allowed to be drunk. Arguing with an officer that you are parked by the side of the road is not sufficient if for example you have the engine on. In some circumstances just sitting in the driver's seat while in possession of the keys…

As an American who recently did some driving around the UK: things are different there! The level of attention needed to drive safely in the UK is off the charts compared to the US with all the twisty, narrow roads, one-lane bridges, and limited visibility. I knew that shit was about to get real when I saw my first "Oncoming Traffic in Middle of Road" sign. Touching my phone while driving never entered my mind—that was all outsourced to my wife in the passenger seat.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#234

Post by nommm-nommm »

sjg007 wrote: post #148
athenot wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 65-70 mph posted on most rural interstates is usually an uneventfully featureless speed, on uneventful, featureless roads This is true. 95% of the time, it would be just as safe to be cruising at 90 mph. But for those other 5% where there's an unexpected tire in the middle of the road, a deer, a driver who swerved into your lane or any other danger... a few extra milliseconds to react and respond is what makes the…

People drive way too fast and don't leave enough buffer.

The buffer thing amazes me, I know people who drive 70 MPH leaving a 5 foot buffer between the and the car in front of them. I have a close my eyes sometimes it makes me so nervous. And it's rude to comment on other people's driving...

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#235

Post by Ntrails »

mnw21cam wrote: post #223
Ntrails wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that using my iPod to play music results in a completely different response to using my iPhone despite the mechanism being functionally identical is laughable. I don't need to look at the screen to queue up the next song on shuffle, it's also no different from hitting next on the cd player... I also use google maps on my phone as a sat nav (audio only is plenty effective to get me places). Again, this is som…

It is just as illegal to drive distracted by a satnav as it is to drive distracted by an iphone in the UK. If you're holding it in your hand or looking away from the road to use it, then it is illegal. Even if you aren't holding it in your hand of looking away from the road, but are significantly distracted, you can be prosecuted under the "Driving without due care attention" law as you state.

> It is just as illegal to drive distracted by a satnav as it is to drive distracted by an iphone in the UK.

Correct. However it is illegal to use a phone without being distracted dangerously, whilst using a satnav without being distracted dangerously is perfectly safe.

The Driving without due care and attention is a perfect catch all for dealing with bad driving behaviour. You can be done for eating crisps as easily as using a sat nav. The specific "using a mobile phone whilst behind the wheel of a car is 6 points on your license + a fine" is completely disproportionate in terms of what behaviours it implicitly approves (such as using sat nav safely whilst not moving) and the burden of proof (requiring the user to be "unsafe").

The reality is that policemen (of whom there are simply not enough) have discretion and a bit of common sense most of the time and use the tools at their disposal to punish people for driving badly whilst using their phone. This is good. I fundamentally disagree with singling out unsafe mobile phone use in law, however.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#236

Post by zachsnow »

oftenwrong wrote: post #205
ptaipale wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like there is need for some regulation here, because the risks of fast response time to customer are externalized to other people in traffic. There could be a law that a driver must have at least one full minute to accept a request. That would help this problem, even if one minute is still a short time to pull over and respond.

Instead of building regulations around internet services to discourage bad driving, why not just enforce laws on bad driving directly? If a driver is not paying attention while driving, punish them.

Suppose my livelihood depends on using my phone while driving (which entails all of the distraction, etc. described, and sometimes results in poor driving on my part). I wonder how much enforcement would be required before I would stop using my phone while driving (and incur the requisite loss of income).

Right now enforcement is at, what, 1/1000 rides (to pick an arbitrary number)? If it was 10/1000 would it influence my behavior? I imagine that 10X or even more enforcement would be required, which may not be practicable.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#237

Post by Cpoll »

brchr wrote: post #120
ramblenode wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if I've become more cognizant of bad journalism over time or simply hold journalism to a higher standard with the rise of publicly available data sets which could be used for real insight into questions like this. Whichever one, I am infrequently satisfied with the level of evidence that supports an article's conclusion. I would love to see a truly data-driven news publication that made quantifying uncer…

Well said, and I share this intuition and desire 100%. I’ve been working on building a platform for data-driven journalism at https://numer.al -- It’s a prototype that turns public APIs into live D3 charts. (Working on embedding those into articles so that they stay up to date, link back to show their provenance, etc.) I think there’s a lot that can be done to bring journalism into the 21st century. If you’re interes…

This is pretty neat! My only complaint is that you haven't labelled the axes. You can estimate the Y-axis pretty well based on the listed number, but the X-axis is a mystery until you click the graph. Even two date labels at either end would be welcome.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#238

Post by nommm-nommm »

Glide wrote: post #33
JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should also ban people talking to their passengers.

I remember there were recommendations for new teen drivers to not have passengers.

Not only recommendations but actual laws banning teen drivers from having some number of passengers under 21 or some such.

Re: Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

#240

Post by nommm-nommm »

painted wrote: post #222

what about the increasingly number of auto-vehicles? how about the increase in the speeds people travel at? how about the materials the cars are made nowadays compared to 50 years ago?

The materials cars are made of today vs 50 years ago are much safer.
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