5 ms·

This seems really similar to techniques I've heard about in road design. A lot of safety improvements are pretty well compensated by changes in people's behavio

This seems really similar to techniques I've heard about in road design. A lot of safety improvements are pretty well compensated by changes in people's behavior. For example, if you make shoulders and lanes wider, people will feel like they're going slower and speed up to compensate. Even with things you wouldn't expect, like the dedicated/third brake light made mandatory for cars in 1986, there were significant changes in behavior (decreased following time) to compensate. However, there are many safety improvements that are more or less invisible to the end user. The best example is rumble strips -- they're never noticed until they do their job.

geggam 7y ago
Your idea works until you look at something like the autobahn. Having driven on it I can say what I feel the main factor to safety is driver behavior. I see more turn signals used and when someone is going faster the other folks tend to move out of their way. Its more of a social mindset that creates safe roads than anything IMO.
- wongarsu 7y ago
  Driver behaviour on the Autobahn is not some accident. Germany has the most expensive drivers licence in the world due to the number of lessions you have to take to even be allowed to take the exams, with most people opting in to even more lessons to pass the exams. To pass the practical exam you have to drive pretty much perfectly (a small number of people never pass). So everybody knows how to drive correctly and has it drilled into them at least once in their life how important that is. Obviously with routine some things slip, but nobody wants to get rear-ended by a car going 120 mph on the Autobahn either.
  - geggam 7y ago
    So you are saying people are trained to be personally responsible? I agree with that. The US has been training people to blame others for several decades now. The difference is obvious
    - Haga 7y ago
      It also empowered generations of risk averse people into positions of veto power. Removing them is surely not safe.
- hexane360 7y ago
  >Your idea works until you look at something like the autobahn Just because there are other methods to achieve safety doesn't mean the ones I mentioned don't work. The Autobahn still has rumble strips and German cars still have airbags.

geggam 7y ago

Your idea works until you look at something like the autobahn. Having driven on it I can say what I feel the main factor to safety is driver behavior. I see more turn signals used and when someone is going faster the other folks tend to move out of their way. Its more of a social mindset that creates safe roads than anything IMO.

wongarsu 7y ago
Driver behaviour on the Autobahn is not some accident. Germany has the most expensive drivers licence in the world due to the number of lessions you have to take to even be allowed to take the exams, with most people opting in to even more lessons to pass the exams. To pass the practical exam you have to drive pretty much perfectly (a small number of people never pass). So everybody knows how to drive correctly and has it drilled into them at least once in their life how important that is. Obviously with routine some things slip, but nobody wants to get rear-ended by a car going 120 mph on the Autobahn either.
- geggam 7y ago
  So you are saying people are trained to be personally responsible? I agree with that. The US has been training people to blame others for several decades now. The difference is obvious
  - Haga 7y ago
    It also empowered generations of risk averse people into positions of veto power. Removing them is surely not safe.
hexane360 7y ago
>Your idea works until you look at something like the autobahn Just because there are other methods to achieve safety doesn't mean the ones I mentioned don't work. The Autobahn still has rumble strips and German cars still have airbags.