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I thought most fatalities are on the highway during good driving conditions, where the road is so smooth and boring that humans lose attention, fall asleep or s
by usaphp 10y ago
I thought most fatalities are on the highway during good driving conditions, where the road is so smooth and boring that humans lose attention, fall asleep or staring at their phones. Speed is much higher when driving on those roads and there is a bigger chance a car will rollover/bigger impact.
- flohofwoe 10y agoAt least in Germany, driving on the Autobahn is about 3x to 4x safer than driving on other road types: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn#Safety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn#Safety, not sure how it compares to the US, but "fast and boring roads" seem to be safer.
- whazor 10y agoGermany is a unsuitable country for comparison, as they have many highways without speed limits. I would argue that this invalidates the boring part.
- the_mitsuhiko 10y agoIt's the same in all European countries.
- vladd 10y agoGermany is the only EU country having roads without speed limits - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limit#Roads_without_speed_limits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limit#Roads_without_spee... . Outside of EU, the only other European location that would qualify would be Isle of Man (as referenced in that article).
- Symbiote 10y agoI don't think the Isle of Man has any dual carriageways, it certainly doesn't have any motorways.
- altstar 10y agoAnd one road in the Northern Territory, Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_Australia
- the_mitsuhiko 10y agoI was referring to the highways being more safe than other road types.
- flohofwoe 10y agoI think the missing speed limit isn't that big of a factor, as most traffic is still flowing at around the same not-so-high speed, maybe somewhere between 130 and 160 km/h (except for trucks on the right lane). It's the relative speed differences that matters, and there the differences on other roads where traffic is stopping and accelerating all the time, with other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists crossing the road which makes urban roads so dangerous.
- jsemrau 10y agoSeems you have never been to Germany ;-) No offense. Most highways have a speed limit only some have none. And most of the highways that don't have a speed limit are quite narrow so while it is possible, no sane driver would do so. If you look at highway A5 as an example. This highway has 8 lanes, which makes driving fast quite dull since you can not really feel the speed relative to the environment.
- MagnumOpus 10y agoThe figure I've seen is 50% of Autobahn is without speed limit, 25% with permanent limits (due to noise control, permanently high traffic volume or intersections) and 25% with temporary limits (depending on buildings works, weather, congestion). Of course the perception is probably worse because more people use the congested parts with speed limits, and due to the limits they spend more time on those parts...
- velodrome 10y agoGetting a drivers license in Germany requires a lot more training (and money) than in the US. The people who do get licenses in Germany are generally better prepared. As a result, they get into less accidents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_licence_in_Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_licence_in_Germany
- anon1385 10y agoIn the UK the motorways (straight, multi-lane, higher speed limits, barriers) are the safest roads, in terms of death or serious injury per vehicle mile. The most dangerous roads are typically single carriage A roads that are twisty, contain blind junctions and so on. For those familiar with the UK road network see: http://roadsafetyfoundation.org/media/32639/rrm_britain_2015.pdf http://roadsafetyfoundation.org/media/32639/rrm_britain_2015...
- cowsandmilk 10y agoOn a per mile basis, they most definitely are not. Here's one set of US DOT numbers[0] from 2007 that show the rate on interstates is 0.7/100M miles while the rate is highest on collector roads at 1.99/100M miles followed closely by local roads at 1.94/100M miles. Interstates have less than half the fatalities on a per mile basis as local roads. [0] http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/data_facts/docs/fataltbl2007.pdf http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/data_facts/docs/fataltbl...
- mattmanser 10y agoSurely per mile makes no sense, as you travel faster on a motorway? The only measure that makes sense in this context is time, bringing distance into it is statistical trickery.
- roninb 10y agoThanks for pointing this out, I was trying to figure out why my brain didn't like per mile for things moving at vastly different speeds.
- mcguire 10y agoWhen traveling, most people do so for a given distance, from hither to yon, not for a given period of time.
- mattmanser 10y agoAgain, not true, you fundamentally misunderstand the majority of car trips. If my job is 2 hours away because there is no motorway, I will get a different job. If there is a motorway, making the commute 40mins, I will take that job. People care how long the journey is, not how far the journey is. People live by commute time, not commute distance. Same for service areas, if the roads all have low speed limits you would need more drivers, they wouldn't just drive for longer.
- 10y ago