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Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

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Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#141

Post by alkonaut »

ossworkerrights wrote: post #129
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #105

The entire country (Norway) had 0 children traffic deaths in 2019. In total 110 traffic deaths, of which 72% were men, very similar to the past few years. About 2/3rd of deaths were drivers or passengers in a car (the rest motorbike or pedestrian), and of those in cars 1/3rd were not using a seat belt. So it's likely you could get an immediate decrease in total traffic deaths of close to 20% if you could just force e…

What a stark contrast to Romania, which had almost 2000 deaths at a population only 4 times larger than norway. Wondering what are the lessons to learn and apply to that country as the situation is out of control.

First of all, having 0.02% blood alcohol limit (I.e. effectively a zero tolerance) is a good and cheap start.

Next comes the expensive things: Replace the car fleet with large, safe and modern cars. Build infrastructure like pedestrian walkways etc to have few unprotected people in traffic. Replace crossings with roundabouts and rebuild motorways and other high speed roads to never have oncoming traffic (separating railings etc). Have extensive automated speed monitoring, including average-speed monitoring, i.e. multiple speed cameras that time the passage of cars over some distance such as through a tunnel.

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#142

Post by vegardx »

chrisseaton wrote: post #131
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #105

The entire country (Norway) had 0 children traffic deaths in 2019. In total 110 traffic deaths, of which 72% were men, very similar to the past few years. About 2/3rd of deaths were drivers or passengers in a car (the rest motorbike or pedestrian), and of those in cars 1/3rd were not using a seat belt. So it's likely you could get an immediate decrease in total traffic deaths of close to 20% if you could just force e…

Why do people not wear seatbelts in Oslo? I thought people gave up objecting to seatbelts decades ago. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone not wearing one.

They do, for the most part. According to the NPRA around 94% of drivers in cities and 95,2% for longer trips outside of cities use a seatbelt. They claim that around 30-40 lives would have been saved yearly if everyone wore a seatbelt.

In Norwegian: https://www.vegvesen.no/trafikkinformasjon/trafikksikkerhet/...

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#143

Post by gombosg »

RivieraKid wrote: post #132
ossworkerrights wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a stark contrast to Romania, which had almost 2000 deaths at a population only 4 times larger than norway. Wondering what are the lessons to learn and apply to that country as the situation is out of control.

Safer cars.

Just look at the huge traffic fatality rate in the USA despite the 'safe' SUV trend.

Better roads & infrastructure (which lead to less car use and slower traffic), driver education, enforcing traffic laws do help though.

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#144

Post by vinay427 »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #127
ovi256 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>without time limits Not true in many EU countries. In France you're supposed to get a French driving license after two years of residence. Never heard of this being enforced, but I know people that changed when their licensed needed renewal so they could deal with a local administration.

This is not compulsory. It is perfectly legal to keep your EU/EEA licence as long as it is valid. They can force you to exchange it for a local one, though, if you commit certain driving offences.

It is required to get one in your country of residence when it expires (and licenses that are valid for life can be limited to two years), or if it is lost, stolen, or damaged. That's not what I would consider "without time limits," and certainly not what I would consider "as valid" as a local Norwegian license. It's more of an extension of the several months or year that people from any other country get.

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#145

Post by tomstoms »

kortilla wrote: post #92
yason wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pedestrians do cross the street when it's red for them You have to think what pedestrian lights are for. They exist solely to improve the flow of car traffic. Pedestrian lights are in gross contrast to the rights and benefits of pedestrians. Without lights, pedestrians would always have first priority on a crosswalk. Cars would have to stop for any pedestrian crossing the street. However, drivers (of inefficient but…

Do trains stop for pedestrians crossing the tracks where you’re from? That sounds very inefficient.

That’s not a fair comparison. Hundreds of tons of train of 100kmh take several km to stop.

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#146

Post by pi-rat »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #105

The entire country (Norway) had 0 children traffic deaths in 2019. In total 110 traffic deaths, of which 72% were men, very similar to the past few years. About 2/3rd of deaths were drivers or passengers in a car (the rest motorbike or pedestrian), and of those in cars 1/3rd were not using a seat belt. So it's likely you could get an immediate decrease in total traffic deaths of close to 20% if you could just force e…

Seatbelt issue is probably going away.

My car will nag the hell out of me if anyone isn't wearing a seatbelt at speeds over 20 km/h. I assume this is true for most modern cars.

Part of the population who didn't grow up with seatbelts is aging. I remember my late grandmother hated the seatbelts, they didn't exist when she grew up. Often she would pretend to use the belt, holding it in place by hand so that it looked like she was wearing it. Stupid, and illogical, but that's how it is..

That only leaves the "cool" youths. Once "modern" naggy cars become old and cheap enough for them, they'll probably start too (or go out of their way to disable the sensor, or uncomfortably wear a seatbelt behind their back - turning a passive action into an active one.).

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#147

Post by klmr »

kmlx wrote: post #30
gokhan wrote: post #13

One interesting observation on Oslo is that, pedestrians do cross the street when it's red for them, if there's no moving traffic close by. This is totally different from, for example, Copenhagen, Stockholm and places I visited in Germany. They're like Italians of the north. That's probably why we felt at home on the streets during our stay there, as a family from Turkey. I would love to have that 0 deaths statistics…

same in the UK. but more than that, in the UK in any intersection with traffic lights the pedestrians will never have a green light at the same time as cars. meanwhile, in most countries i've visited making a left or a right turn in an intersection will most likely cause you to stop for pedestrians that also get a green light. frustrating and illogical!

> frustrating and illogical!

That’s certainly a matter of opinion (and as a German currently living in the UK I disagree): Having separate green light for pedestrians means that the average waiting time is much longer (both for cars and pedestrians) and, further, green light times are often kept much shorter. Having simultaneous green light for parallel car and pedestrian traffic does mean you have to pay more attention, and could theoretically increase the risk of accident (but I’m not convinced that this is the case in practice — in my experience it definitely isn’t!). But on the other hand it means that my time waiting at traffic lights is greatly reduced on average. I thus find the UK system a lot more frustrating.

I actually see the point of the UK system and think it’s entirely defensible. But both systems have their pros and cons.

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#148

Post by alkonaut »

praptak wrote: post #71
glutamate wrote: post #31

Good to see all that oil revenue being used to protect Norwegians, shame about the climate change.

Is Norway responsible for the emissions? It's the buyers who decide to burn the oil rather than use it to produce other stuff.

To be fair, if they left their oil in the ground, then global oil prices would be higher, and alternatives (relatively) cheaper. Anyone who digs up oil and gas ensure it's cheaper to burn it.

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#149

Post by Someone »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #105

The entire country (Norway) had 0 children traffic deaths in 2019. In total 110 traffic deaths, of which 72% were men, very similar to the past few years. About 2/3rd of deaths were drivers or passengers in a car (the rest motorbike or pedestrian), and of those in cars 1/3rd were not using a seat belt. So it's likely you could get an immediate decrease in total traffic deaths of close to 20% if you could just force e…

That assumes that those not wearing seat belts would be alive if they did. That’s possible, but not a given, and likely not completely true.

One way to (sort-of) check that would be to compare that 1/3rd with the fraction of all drivers that do not wear a seat belt.

Re: Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019

#150

Post by marvin »

moralestapia wrote: post #102
tyfon wrote: post #43

It's quite hard to drive in Oslo now. Not impossible but it's not very fun and the speed limits are very low. When I have to go inside "ring 1", I usually drive to a free parking/charging spot for electric cars and walk from there. It's quite close to aker brygge and close to the high way. Back when I was living in Oslo (and didn't have children) I didn't have a car at all, no need for it.

>it's not very fun Sorry to hear that other people's lives get in the way of your idea of 'fun'.

This is just a linguistic misunderstanding. "Det er ikke så moro" in Norwegian literally translates to "it's not so fun", but normally translates closer to "it's not pleasant/convenient" in meaning.

When you're not a native English speaker, it's very common to have subtle differences in intent lost in translation due to different ideomatic expressions. It's a good idea to be charitable (or ask for clarification) wrt. the perceived intent of the speaker, especially when they're from a different culture.

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