Vehicle size / design also a factor. US consumer market loves large, robust vehicles, but what protects the driver hurts the pedestrian. Cybertruk is a good example - the sharp edges, the rigid construction - total no go on the European market
> By 2010 — thanks to better design of roads and vehicles, the addition of seatbelts and greater awareness of drunken driving, among other things — the death rate from crashes had fallen almost 90 percent from its 1920s level
which had taken place in the US and other rich countries changed in the US but not in other rich countries:
> But the progress ended about a decade ago, or at least it did in the United States. Even as vehicle deaths have continued falling in most counties, they have risen in this country.
> Here’s a stark way of thinking about the problem: If the U.S. had made as much progress reducing vehicle crashes as other high-income countries had over the past two decades, about 25,000 fewer Americans would die every year.
Larger vehicles do not seem to be the explanation:
> Many of the potential explanations for the trend don’t seem to fit. Cars in this country are large, but they have become only slightly larger since the early 2000s. Drunken driving has not become more common, and roads have not become more dangerous.
EDIT: Here are potential explanations in the article.
• Smartphones. Other rich countries have smartphones, but surveys suggest that Americans use their smartphones much more while driving than do drivers in other rich counties.
They speculate that part of this may be due to almost all cars in the US having automatic transmissions, compared to only 25% in Europe, making it more of a hassle to fiddle with your phone while driving in Europe.
• Drugs. The US has had a big rise in opioid addiction and in the legalization of marijuana. They mention a federal study that found half of drivers involved in serious accidents tested positive for at least one active drug.
• Lack of sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes. Much of the US population growth has been in the Sun Belt where roads often lack those things. Also the increases in homeless mean more people living near traffic.
I've started to think of the US as an anti-life country (ironic given the large explicitly "pro-life" political wing that controls much of the government). Watching a million Americans die while people refused to wear masks or take vaccines certainly cemented that belief in me, but years of watching politicians deny universal healthcare to Americans started me on that journey. It shows up in traffic accidents, gun accidents/suicides, drug overdoses, etc... American Exceptionalism seems like nothing more than nihilism.
> They speculate that part of this may be due to almost all cars in the US having automatic transmissions, compared to only 25% in Europe, making it more of a hassle to fiddle with your phone while driving in Europe.
I can't speak for Europe but in Australia there are quite strict laws about how a phone can be used while you're driving.
NOTE: the submission is to a NYT briefing. Briefings are also available as a daily emailed newsletter, which I believe you can sign up for without a Times paid subscription. You just need to make an account.
I haven't had a paid Times new-related subscription for years, but still get the email newsletter and it is quite useful. The cover a pretty wide variety of topics [1] so most people will probably find many of the mailings uninteresting but enough cover things that are common recurring topics of discussion here that most will probably find a few useful. Just filter it to a separate mailbox and check now in then--the subject lines of the mailings are usually accurate enough that you can tell at a glance if a particular day covers something you are interested in.
> American infrastructure in many ways has been designed to enable speeding cars.
Yup, that's the big one. In the US people don't just run into pedestrians, they also routinely crash into buildings. That's practically unheard of in Europe.
A lot of roads in the US are designed for driver safety. This means making them really wide and getting rid of all obstacles. Drivers will drive at the speed they feel safe at. Because everything is designed like a highway, everyone is speeding all the time - without even meaning to. You can't just plonk down a speed limit sign and expect people to drive at that speed, you have to design the road for a specific speed.
To give an example, the smallest legal US street is wider that a highway lane in The Netherlands. All the things like bigger cars and cellphone usage have an impact too, but when drivers are driving slowly and looking out the window because they feel unsafe it's way less of a problem. No wonder there's a ton of accidents in the US!
The point of the article is the question of why there is (allegedly) an uptick in traffic deaths in the US in the last year or two. All of the comments in here about US vehicle designs, US road designs, US city designs, etc., that have been that way for decades, are completely off topic.
Police traffic enforcement has dropped to just about zero in my area. It's to the point that people just run through red lights in front of a cop car, who simply ignores it. And of course, traffic laws don't apply to cops. I've been run off the road by a cop trying to force themselves in front of me to run through a red light. No lights or sirens, just an asshole. Totally illegal, but no one cares.
On my commute to work, I narrowly avoid a major collision about once a week due to some maniac driving 90 in a 25 and weaving through lanes. About once a month they have to shut down my route due to some idiot taking a blind turn way too fast and killing another driver.
Hell, even the bus drivers utterly disregard traffic laws. They force themselves into traffic at any time, and do not stop at red lights.
I'm just happy I don't have to commute on the highway anymore. It's honestly terrifying.
14 comments
[ 1.6 ms ] story [ 39.0 ms ] thread> By 2010 — thanks to better design of roads and vehicles, the addition of seatbelts and greater awareness of drunken driving, among other things — the death rate from crashes had fallen almost 90 percent from its 1920s level
which had taken place in the US and other rich countries changed in the US but not in other rich countries:
> But the progress ended about a decade ago, or at least it did in the United States. Even as vehicle deaths have continued falling in most counties, they have risen in this country.
> Here’s a stark way of thinking about the problem: If the U.S. had made as much progress reducing vehicle crashes as other high-income countries had over the past two decades, about 25,000 fewer Americans would die every year.
Larger vehicles do not seem to be the explanation:
> Many of the potential explanations for the trend don’t seem to fit. Cars in this country are large, but they have become only slightly larger since the early 2000s. Drunken driving has not become more common, and roads have not become more dangerous.
EDIT: Here are potential explanations in the article.
• Smartphones. Other rich countries have smartphones, but surveys suggest that Americans use their smartphones much more while driving than do drivers in other rich counties.
They speculate that part of this may be due to almost all cars in the US having automatic transmissions, compared to only 25% in Europe, making it more of a hassle to fiddle with your phone while driving in Europe.
• Drugs. The US has had a big rise in opioid addiction and in the legalization of marijuana. They mention a federal study that found half of drivers involved in serious accidents tested positive for at least one active drug.
• Lack of sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes. Much of the US population growth has been in the Sun Belt where roads often lack those things. Also the increases in homeless mean more people living near traffic.
I can't speak for Europe but in Australia there are quite strict laws about how a phone can be used while you're driving.
I haven't had a paid Times new-related subscription for years, but still get the email newsletter and it is quite useful. The cover a pretty wide variety of topics [1] so most people will probably find many of the mailings uninteresting but enough cover things that are common recurring topics of discussion here that most will probably find a few useful. Just filter it to a separate mailbox and check now in then--the subject lines of the mailings are usually accurate enough that you can tell at a glance if a particular day covers something you are interested in.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/series/us-morning-briefing
Yup, that's the big one. In the US people don't just run into pedestrians, they also routinely crash into buildings. That's practically unheard of in Europe.
A lot of roads in the US are designed for driver safety. This means making them really wide and getting rid of all obstacles. Drivers will drive at the speed they feel safe at. Because everything is designed like a highway, everyone is speeding all the time - without even meaning to. You can't just plonk down a speed limit sign and expect people to drive at that speed, you have to design the road for a specific speed.
To give an example, the smallest legal US street is wider that a highway lane in The Netherlands. All the things like bigger cars and cellphone usage have an impact too, but when drivers are driving slowly and looking out the window because they feel unsafe it's way less of a problem. No wonder there's a ton of accidents in the US!
- winter tire legislation
- highbeam usage
- mandatory yearly car inspections
On my commute to work, I narrowly avoid a major collision about once a week due to some maniac driving 90 in a 25 and weaving through lanes. About once a month they have to shut down my route due to some idiot taking a blind turn way too fast and killing another driver.
Hell, even the bus drivers utterly disregard traffic laws. They force themselves into traffic at any time, and do not stop at red lights.
I'm just happy I don't have to commute on the highway anymore. It's honestly terrifying.