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How Britain built some of the world’s safest roads

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

#141

Post by protocolture »

avianlyric wrote: post #132
protocolture wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 addit…

I mean in terms of driver visibility, you can absolutely improve that. My forward camera is below a toddlers head height and fisheyed like no ones business. And thats before the sensors.

The question of IF a collision occurs, will the larger car do more damage, obviously it will. Well maybe not obviously, if the sensors are throwing on my breaks earlier than I can react there can be substantially less energy on that front too.

But in terms of frequency I feel like they have taken extreme measures to substantially reduce the risk of the collision occurring in the first place.

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

#142

Post by dboreham »

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.

That's the speed you're supposed to drive at.

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

#143

Post by dboreham »

jamesblonde wrote: post #87
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.

Montana would be amazingly safe based on your metric.

We put white crosses on the verge, one for every dead person in an accident. I drive past many crosses every time I run to the grocery store. So...not very safe in MT.

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

#144

Post by dboreham »

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.

There are large numbers of roundabouts in parts of the US too now. E.g. Montana.

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

#145

Post by inferiorhuman »

rkomorn wrote: post #36
PaulRobinson wrote: post #22

As somebody who has driven in a few places around the World, I would say that overall the standard of driving and safety is remarkably high in the UK given that the road layouts are often quite confusing (we have roads in use today from Roman, Saxon, Norman, Medieval, Tudor and more modern phases of development, so it can get confusing), and the level of signage around some confusing layouts is much lower than, say,…

Getting my driver's license in France required 20 hours of instruction by an accredited driving school. Getting my license in the US (CA and NJ) required... showing up with my own car. And in New Jersey, they even forgot to make me take the actual driving test.

In California it's more than showing up (although I think none of the tests are particularly rigorous).

Minors must:

- Complete a 30 hour driver's education course and 6 hours of driver's training

- Pass a knowledge test with 80% or more questions answered correctly

- Apply for and receive an instruction permit

- Maintain the permit for 6+ months

- Drive with an 25+ year old adult supervising for at least 50 hours (including 10 night hours)

- Pass a behind-the-wheel test

Adults must:

- Pass a knowledge test with 80% or more questions answered correctly

- Apply for and receive an instruction permit

- Maintain the permit for 6+ months

- Drive with an adult supervising for at least 50 hours (including 10 night hours)

- Pass a behind-the-wheel test

Minors have additional restrictions on recently issued licenses.

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

#146

Post by lmm »

tialaramex wrote: post #93
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.

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…

> You're not supposed to drive 60mph on those tiny roads.

You are supposed to drive 60mph where appropriate, e.g. on straight stretches with good visibility and no junctions. It's very possible to fail your driving test for not going fast enough on a single carriageway.

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

#147

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

andy99 wrote: post #137
jonplackett wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, whi…

I think the concept of a “speed limit” is part of the problem. On controlled-access roads, I think it would be better for the posted speed to be advisory and, instead, train drivers to think of driving too slow for your lane as being just as dangerous as speeding because, in a moving group of cars, you want to be as close to 0mph relative to the other cars as is feasible.

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

#148

Post by p_j_w »

Peanuts99 wrote: post #86
iainmerrick wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I really have a hard time understanding that trend. More than just the overall sizes of the cars (and they are big) it's those very high, flat fronts. That surely must be bad for visibility and bad for fuel efficiency at speed. I can only imagine people like that style because it looks more like a car and less like a minivan, which is what those enormous SUVs really are.

Perversely they're higher partially because of pedestrian safety. More space between the engine and the bonnet and hinges that extend that space when a force is applied to the front of the car to cushion the impact. Euro NCAP has a whole category for pedestrian safety to test exactly these features.

Does the Euro NCAP test for the likelihood of a collision occurring or only what happens if we assume a collision will occur? It's important, because if a class of vehicles is safer under the assumption of a collision but the collisions happen more frequently versus another class of vehicles, then it's pretty easy to imagine numbers such that the second class of vehicle is actually much safer for pedestrians in spite of a worse safety rating.

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

#149

Post by [deleted] »

lmm wrote: post #146
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…

> You're not supposed to drive 60mph on those tiny roads. You are supposed to drive 60mph where appropriate, e.g. on straight stretches with good visibility and no junctions. It's very possible to fail your driving test for not going fast enough on a single carriageway.

[deleted]

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

#150

Post by tbossanova »

dboreham wrote: post #142
jonplackett wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's the speed you're supposed to drive at.

Yep. I remember being driven around roads like this with a friend with a high performance car who knew what he was doing, so could go what seemed like a terrifyingly high speed to me, but was perfectly safe for him. Then we hit some other cars going slower and he just followed at the same speed, infinitely patient for someone with a thirst for speed. Just completely happy to adjust to the appropriate speed for the situation.
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