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Different ideas about safety mostly. The US has 2x the death rate per km driven compared to Sweden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-

Different ideas about safety mostly. The US has 2x the death rate per km driven compared to Sweden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

ekianjo 6y ago
The US has much larger cars so this drives fatalities up in accidents too.
- jefftk 6y ago
  Really? An accident between two large cars is generally safer than one between two small cars.
  - jefftk 6y ago
    Source: https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight
  - bobthepanda 6y ago
    It may make collision between cars safer, but it makes collision with non-cars deadlier for the people outside the car. The general trend for pedestrian and cycling deaths is up in the US, because increasingly popular SUVs and crossovers strike a person higher on the body, and also are more likely to push a person under the car towards the wheels or forward where they’ll be run over again, rather than over the hood. https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/new-study-suggests-todays-suvs-are-more-lethal-to-pedestrians-than-cars https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/new-study-suggests-todays-s...
    - jefftk 6y ago
      I don't disagree with you, and I'm not sure why you think I do?
  - ekianjo 6y ago
    Err in frontal collisions, maybe? But in pretty much every other case, having something with more kinetic energy will product more harm - it's physics after all. You don't see cyclists killing each others' a lot after all.
golemiprague 6y ago
You can't compare a country the size of the US to Sweden. There are too many variations within the US, it is more like the whole of Europe and we all know driving in Sweden is not like driving in Italy. There are so many factors that can contribute, type of population, topography, weather, congestion, amount of driving in general and many others one could think about. "Ideas about safety", if they exist, is only one factor.

ekianjo 6y ago

The US has much larger cars so this drives fatalities up in accidents too.

jefftk 6y ago
Really? An accident between two large cars is generally safer than one between two small cars.
- jefftk 6y ago
  Source: https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  It may make collision between cars safer, but it makes collision with non-cars deadlier for the people outside the car. The general trend for pedestrian and cycling deaths is up in the US, because increasingly popular SUVs and crossovers strike a person higher on the body, and also are more likely to push a person under the car towards the wheels or forward where they’ll be run over again, rather than over the hood. https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/new-study-suggests-todays-suvs-are-more-lethal-to-pedestrians-than-cars https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/new-study-suggests-todays-s...
  - jefftk 6y ago
    I don't disagree with you, and I'm not sure why you think I do?
- ekianjo 6y ago
  Err in frontal collisions, maybe? But in pretty much every other case, having something with more kinetic energy will product more harm - it's physics after all. You don't see cyclists killing each others' a lot after all.

golemiprague 6y ago

You can't compare a country the size of the US to Sweden. There are too many variations within the US, it is more like the whole of Europe and we all know driving in Sweden is not like driving in Italy. There are so many factors that can contribute, type of population, topography, weather, congestion, amount of driving in general and many others one could think about. "Ideas about safety", if they exist, is only one factor.