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America has nearly twice the car death rate of Canada (and Canada hardly has substantially better weather or density than America). It's crazy.

tyingq 5y ago
The US does rate pretty high in "traffic deaths per 100k people". But they also lead the world in how much they drive. 8,800 kilometers per capita, versus 4,300 in Canada, 7,000 in Germany and less than 1,700 in Japan. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/12/13/why-the-u-s-trails-the-developed-world-on-traffic-deaths/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/12/13/why-the-u-s-trails-th... I'm sure there are other factors, but that would explain most of the difference vs Canada. Twice as much driving means twice as many traffic deaths per capita. Edit: Yes, I agree the US has work to do either way.
- occz 5y ago
  Seems like something that should be rectified - the entirety of american society should be redesigned to reduce the amount of driving required.
  - throwaway4pooxi 5y ago
    Or we should continue to iterate and improve. You assume all the driving is required, a lot of driving is leisure. I do agree that cities should stop blowing tax payer money that should be spent on public transportation (looking at you 80 billion cali train) But I support a fragmented society where towns are connected by highways and interstates and trucks and cars can travel freely. Most of the disdain for cars come from city slickers burnt by traffic and lack of parking. It's a scaling problem, not a car problem. Fix your politicians.
  - mleonhard 5y ago
    Changing existing towns is almost impossible. It is possible to start a new town with new structure. I want to start a town with no personal powered vehicles. It's a project I've been researching for about 4 years.
- leoedin 5y ago
  But even if you look at road deaths per billion km driven, the US still scores 7.3 - more than twice Norway's 3, or the UK's 3.4, and still a fair bit more than all those other countries. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic... Yes, the US drives more. But there's also room for improvement compared to the safest countries.
- viburnum 5y ago
  Driving more miles is a bug not a feature. America should aim to reduce its miles driven by 50-75% to get its deaths in line with similar countries.

tyingq 5y ago

The US does rate pretty high in "traffic deaths per 100k people". But they also lead the world in how much they drive. 8,800 kilometers per capita, versus 4,300 in Canada, 7,000 in Germany and less than 1,700 in Japan. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/12/13/why-the-u-s-trails-the-developed-world-on-traffic-deaths/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/12/13/why-the-u-s-trails-th... I'm sure there are other factors, but that would explain most of the difference vs Canada. Twice as much driving means twice as many traffic deaths per capita. Edit: Yes, I agree the US has work to do either way.

occz 5y ago
Seems like something that should be rectified - the entirety of american society should be redesigned to reduce the amount of driving required.
- throwaway4pooxi 5y ago
  Or we should continue to iterate and improve. You assume all the driving is required, a lot of driving is leisure. I do agree that cities should stop blowing tax payer money that should be spent on public transportation (looking at you 80 billion cali train) But I support a fragmented society where towns are connected by highways and interstates and trucks and cars can travel freely. Most of the disdain for cars come from city slickers burnt by traffic and lack of parking. It's a scaling problem, not a car problem. Fix your politicians.
- mleonhard 5y ago
  Changing existing towns is almost impossible. It is possible to start a new town with new structure. I want to start a town with no personal powered vehicles. It's a project I've been researching for about 4 years.
leoedin 5y ago
But even if you look at road deaths per billion km driven, the US still scores 7.3 - more than twice Norway's 3, or the UK's 3.4, and still a fair bit more than all those other countries. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic... Yes, the US drives more. But there's also room for improvement compared to the safest countries.
viburnum 5y ago
Driving more miles is a bug not a feature. America should aim to reduce its miles driven by 50-75% to get its deaths in line with similar countries.