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How could you bring yourself to write such an article without referencing the ENORMOUS differences in miles driven per capita? Folks in the US drive at a rate m

How could you bring yourself to write such an article without referencing the ENORMOUS differences in miles driven per capita? Folks in the US drive at a rate more than 6x that of France, the UK, or Germany. With that in mind the differences cited are neither surprising nor particularly indicative of a uniquely dangerous driving experience. https://data.oecd.org/transport/passenger-transport.htm https://data.oecd.org/transport/passenger-transport.htm

trgn 4y ago
Man is measure of all things. That americans need to drive more to get their daily needs met, is not a mitigating factor. In fact, maybe it points at the root of the problem.
- marcusverus 4y ago
  My point was that this article is misleading. It criticizes US road design as unsafe and backs this up with misleading per-capita data. If you compared US road fatalities to Somalia on a per-capita basis, I bet they'd kick our asses, too! Not because they have safer roads, but because per-capita data introduces all sorts of extraneous variables (car ownership, miles driven, etc) that make it useless as a measure of road safety. The fact of the matter is that American roads twice as safe as European roads on a per-mile basis--which is the only meaningful way to measure road safety. So... why write an article about how unsafe American roads are relative to European roads when they are twice as safe?
mint2 4y ago
- pas 4y ago
  urbanization seems like the wrong metric here. population density is what drives the problem. (the US has a lot of low-density urban area) and yes, it's terrible. but Germany and basically the whole world are too, with maybe a thousand cities being the exceptions.
QuarterReptile 4y ago
It does raise the question, however, of what all those extra miles are getting us.
- pandaman 4y ago
  Single family houses with front and back yards, more variety in stores, more choice in services, random businesses, which would not exist otherwise (you can have an underwater basket weaving studio in some strip mall and still get enough customers to pay rent since your customer base comes from 60+ miles radius), convenient access to parks and trails for pretty much everyone etc.
abigail95 4y ago
This is like saying you have more meth addicts because you smoke more meth. The solution of driving less doesn't seem useful or astute. It also doesn't explain why deaths went up as people drove less often during the pandemic.

trgn 4y ago

Man is measure of all things. That americans need to drive more to get their daily needs met, is not a mitigating factor. In fact, maybe it points at the root of the problem.

marcusverus 4y ago
My point was that this article is misleading. It criticizes US road design as unsafe and backs this up with misleading per-capita data. If you compared US road fatalities to Somalia on a per-capita basis, I bet they'd kick our asses, too! Not because they have safer roads, but because per-capita data introduces all sorts of extraneous variables (car ownership, miles driven, etc) that make it useless as a measure of road safety. The fact of the matter is that American roads twice as safe as European roads on a per-mile basis--which is the only meaningful way to measure road safety. So... why write an article about how unsafe American roads are relative to European roads when they are twice as safe?

mint2 4y ago

pas 4y ago
urbanization seems like the wrong metric here. population density is what drives the problem. (the US has a lot of low-density urban area) and yes, it's terrible. but Germany and basically the whole world are too, with maybe a thousand cities being the exceptions.

QuarterReptile 4y ago

It does raise the question, however, of what all those extra miles are getting us.

pandaman 4y ago
Single family houses with front and back yards, more variety in stores, more choice in services, random businesses, which would not exist otherwise (you can have an underwater basket weaving studio in some strip mall and still get enough customers to pay rent since your customer base comes from 60+ miles radius), convenient access to parks and trails for pretty much everyone etc.

abigail95 4y ago

This is like saying you have more meth addicts because you smoke more meth. The solution of driving less doesn't seem useful or astute. It also doesn't explain why deaths went up as people drove less often during the pandemic.