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US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

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Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#51

Post by rdouble »

barrkel wrote: post #48
AmericanOP wrote: post #30

Not quite sure yet how this influences my recent urge to start riding motorcycles. There seems to be a (near) 1:2 ratio between motorcycle and vehicle fatalities. I already knew motorcycle riders were 5 times more likely to get in accidents, and those accidents were 35 times more likely to result in very serious injury. In my life so far I've been in one small fender bender. This does confirm some of the self-imposed…

Highway / motorway riding is excruciatingly boring, even in the absence of speed limits. I've ridden from London to Kiel in Germany and back a couple of times, via France and Luxembourg, and found it infinitely preferable to avoid motorways, even though it takes 3 days rather than one (long) day per leg. Doing 200km/h+ gets old really fast when you're going in a straight line. If you've got speed limits and intend on…

For an alternative perspective, I much prefer riding a cruiser style bike on straight, flat, empty highways in rural USA. Many Harley enthusiasts seem to feel the same way.

Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#53

Post by jberryman »

freejoe76 wrote: post #42

This is an interesting dataset -- too bad it's such a boring map. Two ways it could be improved: 1. Allow filtering by year, by type of death. 2. Allow data to be compared (deaths by state, by type, by year) in a non-map based form. I'm sure there are more...

some sort of heatmap where number of deaths are normalized with respect to vehicle density (or I guess just population). That would give an idea of which states/regions/roads are more treacherous or have more dangerous drivers.

Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#54

Post by wilkenm »

lutorm wrote: post #40
AmericanOP wrote: post #30

Not quite sure yet how this influences my recent urge to start riding motorcycles. There seems to be a (near) 1:2 ratio between motorcycle and vehicle fatalities. I already knew motorcycle riders were 5 times more likely to get in accidents, and those accidents were 35 times more likely to result in very serious injury. In my life so far I've been in one small fender bender. This does confirm some of the self-imposed…

Being a rider before I left the Bay Area, it's kind of spooky to look at Highway 9, 84 to La Honda, and Summit road. You can literally see the yellows in the corners, and looking at the map, I can see many of those corners in my mind's eye. That said, if you spend some time around Hwy 9 on a summer weekend, it shouldn't surprise you that the accident rate is high. If you don't ride like those people, your risk will n…

Also check out the Angeles Crest highway (just North of Los Angeles), or 'The Dragon' out in the South East. You can trace the roads by the yellow dots.

Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#55

Post by georgieporgie »

AmericanOP wrote: post #30

Not quite sure yet how this influences my recent urge to start riding motorcycles. There seems to be a (near) 1:2 ratio between motorcycle and vehicle fatalities. I already knew motorcycle riders were 5 times more likely to get in accidents, and those accidents were 35 times more likely to result in very serious injury. In my life so far I've been in one small fender bender. This does confirm some of the self-imposed…

Something like 70% of single-vehicle motorcycle collisions involve alcohol, so that's the big one to avoid. Here are my tips, from 17 years of riding and commuting by motorcycle:

* Avoid alcohol before riding (edit: personally, I never ride within six hours of consuming any alcohol).

* Wear high-quality, full-body protective gear.

* Avoid rush hour when possible, particularly evening rush hour when drivers are tired, cranky, and aggressively want to get home.

* Absolutely avoid riding during drunk hours. Basically, stay off the streets after 9pm on Friday and Saturday, and stay away from sporting events, concerts, etc.

Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#56

Post by synnik »

AmericanOP wrote: post #30

Not quite sure yet how this influences my recent urge to start riding motorcycles. There seems to be a (near) 1:2 ratio between motorcycle and vehicle fatalities. I already knew motorcycle riders were 5 times more likely to get in accidents, and those accidents were 35 times more likely to result in very serious injury. In my life so far I've been in one small fender bender. This does confirm some of the self-imposed…

Just be smart...

My favorite bad example is a former kung fu teacher of mine. He was in a motorcycle accident that put him in a wheelchair a number of years ago. He recovered, mostly. And I always had sympathy for him, assuming he was a safe rider.

That is, until he told me the story, and it started with, "I was going 120mph in the left lane on on the LA Freeway one night..."

Don't be that guy, and you'll have much better odds.

Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#57

Post by barrkel »

rdouble wrote: post #51
barrkel wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highway / motorway riding is excruciatingly boring, even in the absence of speed limits. I've ridden from London to Kiel in Germany and back a couple of times, via France and Luxembourg, and found it infinitely preferable to avoid motorways, even though it takes 3 days rather than one (long) day per leg. Doing 200km/h+ gets old really fast when you're going in a straight line. If you've got speed limits and intend on…

For an alternative perspective, I much prefer riding a cruiser style bike on straight, flat, empty highways in rural USA. Many Harley enthusiasts seem to feel the same way.

For sure, if sitting in a chrome armchair floating across the slowly-changing landscape is your thing, rather than actually riding... :-P

Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#58

Post by rdouble »

barrkel wrote: post #57
rdouble wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For an alternative perspective, I much prefer riding a cruiser style bike on straight, flat, empty highways in rural USA. Many Harley enthusiasts seem to feel the same way.

For sure, if sitting in a chrome armchair floating across the slowly-changing landscape is your thing, rather than actually riding... :-P

I also like cross country skiing and long walks on the beach.

Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#59

Post by ghurlman »

PLejeck wrote: post #23
nostromo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think SF is bad, look at Manhattan. What's with all the 99 year old deaths in NYC? Bad data?

Maybe New Yorkers just hate the elderly?

Your New York hate is just adorable - and belongs back on Reddit, not here.

Re: US Road Fatalities 2001-09 mapped with OpenStreetMap

#60

Post by smallblacksun »

PLejeck wrote: post #18
nostromo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think SF is bad, look at Manhattan. What's with all the 99 year old deaths in NYC? Bad data?

I dunno, Manhattan is sloooooooow-moving, I'm not sure how you can fatally injure somebody at 5MPH gridlock!

A car can kill a pedestrian/bicyclist/motorcyclist at surprisingly low speeds. It's almost impossible to kill someone in a car at under 25 MPH or so (unless they drive off a cliff or something), but pedestrians can be killed by cars going as slowly as 10 MPH (they get knocked off their feet and hit their heads, usually). I read a very interesting paper by the NTSB or IIHS about that, but can't find it now.
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