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How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

ourworldindata.org

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Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#131

Post by ajb »

rgblambda wrote: post #39
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #2

From the footer: > Our World in Data is a project of Global Change Data Lab, a nonprofit based in the UK (Reg. Charity No. 1186433). I'm a Brit too, but this article felt a bit too self-congratulatory given I've read other recent reports about other places (cites, regions, and entire countries) with overall safer roads; kinda like how we love to tell everyone how chuffed we are with how safe our AC plugs are.

>kinda like how we love to tell everyone how chuffed we are with how safe our AC plugs are. I would actually love to see some data that compares total deaths and injuries per capita from electrocution from plugs across different countries. I have a feeling the total worldwide figures are tiny in comparison to injuries from stepping barefoot/putting your knee on UK plugs. Also, UK plugs tend to have the wire coming ou…

I've never seen a plug that has an exposed wire for that reason - all the plugs have a heavy clamp internally that attaches to the outer sheath, preventing the movement that would cause this. I would suspect that any plugs where wear has caused exposure are either properly ancient, or were wired incorrectly (eg by trimming the outer sheath short of the clamp).

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#132

Post by avianlyric »

protocolture wrote: post #118
hazzamanic wrote: post #17

I wonder if there will be a reversal in pedestrian deaths with the rise in larger cars. I live in a large UK city and it is mad the number of SUVs you see driving around.

I dont see why. Like outside of specifically seppo produced coal wagons, the bigger cars\trucks\suvs are shipping with all safety features by default. I have 360 degree cameras at slow speed, sensors that go off if theres a loose branch within a meter of the car. I have more faith in my big car than I did with my older hatchback which only had a reversing cam.

Because bigger cars carry more energy, have poorer driver visibility, and are more likely to result in pedestrians going under the vehicle due to higher bonnet lines.

Big cars make drivers feel safer. But the stats are quite clear, they kill more pedestrians, and, ironically, are more likely to kill their drivers due their roll over risk.

The safety features might help, but they’re just compensating for all the additional risk bigger vehicles bring. You simply can’t beat physics.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#133

Post by avianlyric »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #74
CalRobert wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Confusing roads are safer though, it forces drivers to pay more attention

Kinda. In South Kensington, they spent a fortune trying to use this non-delineated road setup where its not clear quite where the pavements (sidewalks for the USians), and road borders are, and in theory it means everybody just becomes very hyper aware of each other. The theory goes something like how cycle lanes - just the a white line down the side of the road - can cause drivers to pass much closer to cyclists tha…

It’s South Kensington, part of council that’s notorious for its hatred of anything that even vaguely looks like a bike or a bike lane. Their attitudes to road design are despicable, with a clear priority for cars over any other road user. It often feels like they only provide pedestrian or cycle infrastructure as a grudging acknowledgement of the fact the vast majority of people walk or cycle, and car users are in the minority.

All of that is a long way of saying that any road infrastructure South Kensington designed is going to be a long way behind best practice for pedestrian safety, even when they’re trying.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#134

Post by fps-hero »

cjensen wrote: post #83

The article says "safest roads," but the statistic used to demonstrate that is deaths per 100K people rather than deaths per kilometer driven. Seems to me the latter would be a much better metric for the safety of the physical roads.

This would introduce a bias towards countries that are large and have extensive motorway networks. They would appear safer than countries that have a smaller portion of motorway miles.

> If we look at the number of deaths per billion miles driven, we see that motorways are roughly four times safer than urban roads, and more than five times safer than rural roads. This is not specific to the UK: among 24 OECD countries, approximately 5% of road deaths occurred on motorways.5 In almost all countries, it was less than 10%.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#135

Post by rmccue »

tialaramex wrote: post #127
zdragnar wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same is true in the US. Most (all?) states have state-wide speed limit "defaults" for town/city roads (i.e. 25 mph), highways and rural roads (i.e. 55 mph) and freeways (i.e. 70mph). Instead of having a speed limit sign after each and every intersection, they're placed periodically. If you enter a road and there's no sign, that's the speed limit. If there's a different speed limit than the default, and you cross…

The UK does have default rules, for example if there are houses directly facing onto the street (no front garden or similar maybe hard to imagine in most of the US but common in some UK towns) then the limits are low, if there are no houses at all the default limits are much higher. You are taught some rules of thumb for this when learning to drive. The posted limit signs are in addition to these rules, though they'r…

More specifically, “built-up areas” where the lower limits apply are those with streetlights at least every 200 yards - definitionally.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#136

Post by breadwinner »

zabzonk wrote: post #129
breadwinner wrote: post #128

As an American tourist in London I found the roundabouts very interesting. In big cities and small, all intersections have a roundabout. Compare that to the US. You have Stop signs which are easy to miss. Sometimes the Stop signs are ignored by people in a hurry. Sometimes people steal the Stop signs to use as decoration in dorms.

> In big cities and small, all intersections have a roundabout. As someone that has lived in London for nearly 30 years, I can safely say - no they don't. Most intersections have traffic lights.

OK, I meant at least have a roundabout, and I meant in England not in London.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#137

Post by andy99 »

jonplackett wrote: post #121
tialaramex wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not supposed to drive 60mph on those tiny roads. Why are they 60mph? Well, the symbol they display doesn't say 60mph, it's basically just a slash symbol - it should be read "National Limit Applies" or perhaps "Derestricted" and it so happens that the law in the UK says that if there's no other rule in place that limit is 60mph and on these tiny roads nobody has put in place a more specific limit so that's the…

I hate driving on these roads. I just refuse to drive a speed where I can’t stop if there’s someone in the road on a blind corner - call me an idiot and beep your horn at me if you want.

Makes sense, and I know driving in france I've felt the same. I also know driving in Canada our speed limits often cater to some lowest common denominator, where anyone driving the limit is going dangerously slow (I'm thinking of certain country roads) and inevitably has a long line of angry people following them.

I've heard before about setting speed limits using percentile studies of people driving on the road, which in the absence of some specific safety concern (which then needs engineering like narrowing the road or adding turns) makes the most sense.

I also wish there was more of a culture of pulling over if you don't want to drive at the flow speed. If I want a leisurely drive and see someone rapidly coming up behind me, I'll happily pull over and let them pass. There seem to be these sociopaths or self-righteous jerks who will happily drive 5km/h under the speed limit with 20 cars behind them. This is way more dangerous than speeding and should be treated as such. If you just want to drive slowly, why would you want the stress or a bunch of angry drivers behind you.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#138

Post by zabzonk »

breadwinner wrote: post #136
zabzonk wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In big cities and small, all intersections have a roundabout. As someone that has lived in London for nearly 30 years, I can safely say - no they don't. Most intersections have traffic lights.

OK, I meant at least have a roundabout, and I meant in England not in London.

It's not just London. For example the small city I now live in (Lincoln) has very few, if any, roundabouts in the city itself - they are confined to the ring-road around the place, and roads in/out of it. Not true for all places, of course - for example Swindon is notorious for its "Magic Roundabout".

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#139

Post by asdff »

lordnacho wrote: post #38

But why is it that countries that are culturally close to Britain (eg colonies) have much higher fatality rates? You'd expect them to have implemented some of the same policies. Singapore and Malta have similar rates, but the others are much higher. Regarding roundabouts, it makes sense when explained like in the article. But I've always felt like they were dangerous, especially the ones they have in Britain where yo…

Because they don't have the same road use culture.

Re: How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

#140

Post by [deleted] »

berryg wrote: post #82

Driving in the UK can be quite a shock when you're used to the roads in the Netherlands. The speed at which people navigate roundabouts can feel terrifying, and the maximum speed in the countryside is something else. Going *60 mph* on narrow roads with limited visibility is just crazy. The locals just speed by. I guess it's just what you're used to.

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