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U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

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Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#61
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Stop fucking texting while driving!

Or, in the spirit of HN: texting while driving looks like an industry ripe for disruption.

You have my permission to use this as your next start-up idea.

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#62
post #7

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.

Honestly let's not refer to the problem as cellphone usage, but touchscreen usage. I can't fathom how builtin touchscreens on center consoles are even blessed by the DOT (especially with the horrendous input lag "modern" implementations generally have), but for their being "hip".

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#63
How can you write an article about this without any discussion of the trend in automobile accidents (including nonfatal ones) as well as the trend in miles driven per year? Counting traffic deaths without any explanatory context simply raises a lot of questions to which I don't have time to research the answers.

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#64
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The insurance business is the best racket to be in, same as private prison industry. Customers are guaranteed.

That's all hip and cynical, but I'm pretty sure motor vehicle insurance would be a good business even if states didn't mandate that people carry it. It'd be more expensive for the people that did carry it, but it'd be a large business. And of course, in many states there is the option to post a bond to prove ability to compensate.

You might check out New Hampshire. I don't have a reference handy, but I recall reading that they don't require insurance yet have more people insured than most other states.

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#65
post #7

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.

Honestly let's not refer to the problem as cellphone usage, but touchscreen usage . I can't fathom how builtin touchscreens on center consoles are even blessed by the DOT (especially with the horrendous input lag "modern" implementations generally have), but for their being "hip".

My 2016 Mazda disables the touchscreen when the car is in motion. I thought perhaps that was a NHTSA rule, but given cars like the Tesla S (where the screen operates everything not just the IVI) I guess it's not a firm requirement.

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#66

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…

> Almost everyone will drive 35-40 in a 30 I used to, until I learned this [0]: > If someone is hit by a car at 40 mph they are 90% likely to be killed. > If someone is hit by a car at 30 mph they are 50% likely to be killed. > If someone is hit by a car at 20 mph they are 10% likely to be killed. [0] http://www.safespeed.org.uk/killspeed.html

I've never seen this before and you honestly just changed my behavior with these facts. Thanks for sharing this.

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#67
post #14
post #7

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.

I think GPS is secondary: you can easily get a mount for it. Based on experience, the most likely explanation is texting or voice calls. When I got a new car with bluetooth calling, all of a sudden I was fumbling a lot less. A call is now about the same level of distraction as having a passenger or 2. Texting however, I have no idea. Maybe something that moves texting to voice, but I haven't seen anything actually ma…

> When I got a new car with bluetooth calling, all of a sudden I was fumbling a lot less. A call is now about the same level of distraction as having a passenger or 2.

Most studies that have actually tested it have found that talking with someone on a phone, even if hands free, is much more distracting than talking to a passenger.

A big factor is that a passenger is much more likely to be aware of road and traffic conditions and stop the conversation during situations where the driver needs to pay extra attention to driving.

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#68
post #7

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.

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.)

But it's not out of sight! Perhaps you don't realize how obvious it is! If you're in an SUV, you can easily see the phones on people's laps. If you're in a car, you can still tell because people don't normally stare at their crotch while at a red light. Even if they hold it higher, you can still tell they're not looking around them. ...

Finally if all else fails, at night you can see the reflection of light from their phone.

In LA I would guess something like 75% of drivers use their phones at red lights. It makes the delay of cars starting to move when a light turns green super annoying.

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#69

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…

> Almost everyone will drive 35-40 in a 30 I used to, until I learned this [0]: > If someone is hit by a car at 40 mph they are 90% likely to be killed. > If someone is hit by a car at 30 mph they are 50% likely to be killed. > If someone is hit by a car at 20 mph they are 10% likely to be killed. [0] http://www.safespeed.org.uk/killspeed.html

Funny, that site's an anti-speed camera site.

Re: U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC

#70
post #7

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.

I don't think there's any data to support that. Smart phone penetration in the US has been above 75% for many years now, so you'd have to explain why there's a jump in fatalities now but wasn't as smart phone penetration went from 0% to 75%. Secondly, this data should be controlled for miles driven. Otherwise a growing population and a growing economy can be misconstrued as roadways becoming more dangerous. https://e…

Anecdotally there are a lot more people glued to their screens than there used to be. I think one factor is younger people who become drivers after already have been addicted to their smart phones.

It used to be that you could tell from a distance who was talking on their phone while driving. They would drift off their lane and correct randomly. At least while talking you have some % of your attention on driving, if low. While texting or interacting with the device's screen you have just about 0 attention left for other tasks. And you often don't even realize it...

There must be some data specific to distracted driving you'd think...

EDIT: Some data:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951952/

http://www.fleetfinancials.com/article/story/2011/09/5-year-...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/distracted-dr...

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