41–50 of 81 posts
Wonder how much of this can be tied to the economy getting better and more people buying/driving (used and less safe) cars when they previously couldn't afford to.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think some of it must be an unintended consequence of usage bans. People still do it, they just keep the phone out of sight, and this keeps their concentration off the road for longer. (And of course you can't type by feel on a virtual keyboard.)
This. I text while driving very rarely, but when it was legal I would with my arm straight ahead so I could see the road and my phone. My phone's now been relegated to below the dash.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no federal database of traffic fatalities? In terms of human resources we lose on the order of 150 billion (40000 *7,000,000 /2 ) dollars a year in traffic fatalities. That's not including the lost work from injuries. That's like 1% of the GDP. You would think that this would be a good enough reason to at least compile a database of causes. Even an incomplete one could be useful.
There is https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
also conducted a survey that indicates some possible causes for the steady increases, including speed, texting via touch input or voice, as well as driving while under the influence. I think most of it can be attributed to cellphone usage while driving. And now that most drivers choose to use their smartphones as GPS rather than a dedicated GPS device, I think it's going to get much worse.
In this environment, having a car that has active collision control/prevention mechanisms is more and more a necessity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think most of it can be attributed to cellphone usage while driving. This. My car insurance went up 25% recently b/c of this trend. That's right, OTHER PEOPLES behavior is costing me money. I guess thats how insurance works though right. I mean the insurance companies need to be guaranteed to make money right???
More or less, yes they do need to be guaranteed to make money. At least on average anyway. Or they will stop writing insurance policies.
Given the proliferation of front-facing cameras and velocity sensors in all iPhones and most Android devices, it is unconscionable that these devices remain usable in these circumstances.
Does anyone know if (and where) it's possible to download a data set of all car accidents (or just fatals) for the last few years? I'd like to see things like date and time, weather conditions, lat/lon, make and model of cars involved, etc.
All California crashes, fatal to no injury, goes back a few years at least: http://iswitrs.chp.ca.gov/Reports/jsp/userLogin.jsp (You have to create a free account)
Overall these data sets have been pretty well studied for the past few decades. The results are well documented: e.g. 6pm to midnight is the deadliest time, young males are the riskiest, older drivers are also risky, etc. Weather can actually be good for safety because people often drive slower and there are fewer cars on the road in bad conditions. But yes, weather can be a factor too.
Wonder how much of this can be tied to the economy getting better and more people buying/driving (used and less safe) cars when they previously couldn't afford to.
Moving 12-Month Total Vehicle Miles Traveled https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M12MTVUSM227NFWA
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Automated enforcement of speed limit violations would be fine, as long as our speed limits were adjusted for strict enforcement versus human enforcement. Almost everyone will drive 35-40 in a 30, but you could make a case that anyone breaking 45-50mph for more than a few seconds should automatically get a ticket. Even better, the automated enforcement could account for actual danger, using road conditions, traffic de…
Every speeder ever thinks they can speed until, well, they can't. As air drag increases quadratically with speed so does kinetic energy and pedestrian survival rates in a collision rapidly approach 0% for speeds above even 25 mph. So no, widespread violation of speed limits is not in fact an argument towards allowing the violation of speed limits. Most countries are already much more lenient here than physical realit…
In some high density locations, that might mean strictly enforcing a 15mph limit instead of loosely enforcing a 10mph limit, building bike lanes, public transport, pedestrian bridges, and guarded crosswalks, etc.