Earlier quoted context omitted.
Greed is good! Anything that's not greed is socialism and we can't have that now, can we.
This but unironically. If it wasn’t for greed we would be in the caves still.
It turns out any kind of extremism is a problem.
Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
121–130 of 141 posts
Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If speediots followed the rules, there wouldn't be a speed differential. But, they don’t. So there is a speed differential. That’s reality, you aren’t going to change that unless you start executing people that speed, and that isn’t a realistic solution. Redesigning the road so people instinctively drive slower does actually work. You take a four lane road, and change it to a two-lane road with left turn lanes, con…
> That’s reality, you aren’t going to change that unless you start executing people that speed, and that isn’t a realistic solution. This is an adult conversation, please think before you type absurdities like this. If (A) there was enough enforcement to actually catch people that speed, and (B) the punishment was rehabilitative (you have to clean up the roadway you were endangering people's lives on and take a class…
> This is an adult conversation, please think before you type absurdities like this.
If (A) there was enough enforcement to actually catch people that speed, and (B) the punishment was rehabilitative (you have to clean up the roadway you were endangering people's lives on and take a class to retest for your license) there would be far fewer speeders.
Red light cameras are illegal in my state, there isn’t enough money to vastly increase traffic enforcement. Penalties would have to be dialed up to 11 for people to modify their behavior, and I don’t seen that happening. Even if speeding tickets were $1,000 or 40 hours of community service, people would still speed.
It would be great if people would drive safely, but they don’t, so that’s why I think redesigning roads is the only real way to change driving behavior.
Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If speediots followed the rules, there wouldn't be a speed differential. But, they don’t. So there is a speed differential. That’s reality, you aren’t going to change that unless you start executing people that speed, and that isn’t a realistic solution. Redesigning the road so people instinctively drive slower does actually work. You take a four lane road, and change it to a two-lane road with left turn lanes, con…
I think redesign is the way to go, but there are places that are only separated from the U.S. in terms of education and enforcement, and compliance is excellent there. Really we can do both.
It’s also a cultural problem in addition to an engineering challenge, many Americans are notoriously “independent” (aka selfish) and that is evident by watching them drive.
Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s a very convenient set of rules, that allow us to place all the deaths into another column in our tabulation.
Socialism's high death toll is the _direct_ result of the _implementation_ of socialist policies. No other form of governance shares this honor.
Umm, I would argue that Fascism shares that honor actually.
Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#125For many years I commuted by bike in a city that prioritized driving convenience, speed, and free parking over safety and sense of place. I tried convince my neighbors that we ought to make different tradeoffs to improve safety and I volunteered at and financially supported various transportation safety groups.
Ultimately I gave up and moved to a place that was a better fit and my only regret is not doing so sooner. I still believe that it's possible for any city to eliminate traffic deaths, but I no longer believe that this obligates every city to make the tradeoffs this requires.
It reminds me of the Paul Graham essay [1] about the benefits of surrounding yourself with people who care about the things you care about:
> It's not so much that you do whatever a city expects of you, but that you get discouraged when no one around you cares about the same things you do.
Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#126Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where are your stats from? Pedestrian deaths across the US are at near all-time highs, but in contrast SF reports drops: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2026/pedestrian-fatalit...
Sigh. You people are like these climate change deniers who are saying that "the climate is cooling" because this year is slightly cooler than the previous one. Your own article has a chart with the number of deaths by year, and the noisy upward trend from 2016 is pretty clear. But I admit that I did not check the data for 2025 before I wrote my post. So my post can be amended to: "Increased or stayed the same". There…
Idk who "you people" is referring to. But the trends for the cities who have been spending moneys on these improvements are better than nationwide. Not to mention the article we're discussing (improvements in Helsinki) explicitly attribute the decrease in traffic deaths to the same kind of improvements Seattle/Portland/SF have been making.
Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#128For many years I commuted by bike in a city that prioritized driving convenience, speed, and free parking over safety and sense of place. I tried convince my neighbors that we ought to make different tradeoffs to improve safety and I volunteered at and financially supported various transportation safety groups. Ultimately I gave up and moved to a place that was a better fit and my only regret is not doing so sooner.…
Very curious what city you moved to if you don't mind sharing! I live in a small city that in its downtown proper has good bike infrastructure but everywhere else it is terrible and the broader area is very anti-cyclist unfortunately.
Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#129I can't say I'd be excited about 19 mph speed limits enforced by cameras, but I don't doubt it would work. I'd love for my city to just focus on making other forms of transportation more appealing. More bus lanes, more (properly designed) bike lanes, etc.
Edinburgh doesn't enforce its 20mph zones, I follow them anyway. And I don't believe I actually make progress through the city any less quickly than drivers who speed, because it's rare that I'm not in any case sitting behind the speeders at the next red light.
Arterial roads are normally still 30mph, and it's not a huge city so it doesn't take that long to get from the outskirts to the centre. Or when it does, it's not because of low speed limits.
Re: Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're asking the wrong question. The answer is 10% The interesting question is power-to-weight, which was (apparently) a direct result of EPA regulations that were enacted in 1975. The below article, which I found from a search engine copying your question and looking at a few results, is an interesting read. Ignoring all that, the actual question would be: how have car sizes and weights changed _in this region_ dur…
> Ignoring all that, the actual question would be: how have car sizes and weights changed _in this region_ during this period of time. Sizes and weights of cars in brasil have little bearing to accidents in the PNW, for example. Sorry that I wasn't clear, that's exactly what I meant. I'm curious because it makes absolutely no sense that a safer urban design with separation of grades for cyclists, lowering speeds thro…
> There's also the added issue that American driving standards for a licence are incredibly low since it's kinda required for you to have a driver's licence to exist and have a life in the majority of the country.
Relative to what?