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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

#231

Post by djoldman »

priteau wrote: post #216
djoldman wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. This is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in... Browsing through this I found: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Accident... What is up with poisoning in the early 40s?

The page for this graph links to the source of the data, which is at: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/deaths-by-demograph... As I suspected, poisoning most likely includes drug overdose. They have this comment about the 2023 data: > #1: Poisoning: 100,304 deaths > Largely due to the opioid epidemic affecting millions of people in the United States You can see more recent data than 2004 in their interactive c…

Ah, that makes sense, thanks.

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

#232

Post by potato3732842 »

hollerith wrote: post #230
potato3732842 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Maybe local police are very, very strict about drink/driving, thus reducing the number of deaths. The Karen Read trial was illustrative about how seriously Massachusetts law enforcement takes DUI.

How is the Read trial relevant here? Karen Read was accused of intentionally running John O'Keefe over because she was angry at him.

>How is the Read trial relevant here?

The conduct of the law enforcement professionals and people they associate with leading up to the events relevant to the trail is relevant to a discussion of how seriously they take DUI.

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

#233

Post by [deleted] »

potato3732842 wrote: post #232
hollerith wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the Read trial relevant here? Karen Read was accused of intentionally running John O'Keefe over because she was angry at him.

>How is the Read trial relevant here? The conduct of the law enforcement professionals and people they associate with leading up to the events relevant to the trail is relevant to a discussion of how seriously they take DUI.

[deleted]

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

#234

Post by GuB-42 »

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.

I prefer the death per people metric as I am more interested in how likely I am to receive some bad news than some metric based on distance.

Both measures have bias, the "per people" metric doesn't take into account when people are actually driving while the "per kilometer" metric puts too much emphasis on long distance driving, which is usually done on motorways where it is the safest. Maybe the best metric would be "per time spent on the road, including as a pedestrian on the sidewalk", but I guess it is harder to estimate.

Anyways the UK is doing well on both metrics.

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

#235

Post by hollerith »

potato3732842 wrote: post #232
hollerith wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the Read trial relevant here? Karen Read was accused of intentionally running John O'Keefe over because she was angry at him.

>How is the Read trial relevant here? The conduct of the law enforcement professionals and people they associate with leading up to the events relevant to the trail is relevant to a discussion of how seriously they take DUI.

OK, how about this: how would someone who knows nothing about you other than your 2 comments here determine whether you think MA police take DUI seriously enough or whether you think they go too easy on DUI?

Read did drive under the influence and police and prosecutors laid harsh charges against her, but they could've laid those harsh charges (first- and second-degree murder IIRC) against her even if she had been stone sober that night, so it seems to me that the Read case says nothing about how harshly police and prosecutors treat ordinary DUIs.

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

#236

Post by laurencerowe »

graemep wrote: post #225
wwqrd wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

per capita is a bit weird, maybe people in the UK don't drive as much.

Less than in the US, but I imagine similar to the other European countries. One thing that is not being discussed is that cars have become a lot wafer - for both people in the car and for pedestrians they might hit.

For the pedestrians they might hit the opposite has happened in the US as cars have been replaces with giant trucks and SUVs with extremely poor visibility.

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

#237

Post by MrBrobot »

Roundabouts are great… except when you install them in places people don’t understand how to traverse them. A list of the most dangerous intersections in Michigan is published every year, and the roundabouts near me pretty consistently make the top 5 to top 10.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2024/07/03/these-a...

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

#239

Post by MrBrobot »

piker wrote: post #43

As an American who drove for 20 years before obtaining a license in the UK, I can offer some observations. First, driving in the UK is much more a privilege than a right as in the US. You can live a complete life in the UK without a license because of the wide availability of public transit. In the US however, if you want to maintain a steady job outside of NYC, Chicago, DC, Boston or perhaps a few others, you'll hav…

I think universal vehicle inspections alone would massively cut down on a significant amount of accidents, especially in Michigan. The number of people I see driving in 6” of snow with bald tires, grinding brakes, and blown out suspension is really concerning.

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

#240

Post by abridgett »

The hazard perception test was a great addition in my opinion. (Basically a video plays and you have to press a button when something dangerous has happened).

I passed my driving test 30+ years ago and then took the HPT as part of a motorcycle test 15 years later.

Paying attention (to the kid bouncing a ball at the side of the road, to the cyclist when it's windy weather etc) is a key part of road craft and I hope this made it much clearer with some (contrived) examples. TBH I just wish they let you click earlier (for _potential_ threats - i.e. before they step into the road, not just afterwards).

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