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> "It is, unfortunately, an American phenomenon," says Jonathan Adkins, CEO of the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). Other Western countries did not

> "It is, unfortunately, an American phenomenon," says Jonathan Adkins, CEO of the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). Other Western countries did not see the same sustained increase in traffic deaths, and he thinks one important difference is a pullback in policing, following the George Floyd protests of 2020. Policing is most certainly one of the contributing reasons to danger on our streets and highways, but I'm surprised they did not mention the change in traffic patterns after the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, 6 lane highways would be backed up because traffic volumes were very high, resulting in slower speeds. Slower speeds are safer for everyone when a crash does happen to take place. Post-pandemic, or whatever you want to call current times, have different traffic patterns, and there is less congestion on these expansive highways, allowing people to feel safer while moving at more dangerous speeds. Even if the same number of crashes occur, higher speeds increases the risk of danger for everyone. This is also a contributing reason to why a lot US roads are more dangerous than other western countries. We have a lot more roads that are designed to carry many more cars, and when they aren't carrying that many cars, they become very easy to speed on. We need to look further at the cause, which is highway and road design, in addition to the symptoms, which are dangerous driver behaviors. You can address the symptoms, but as long as the cause is still relevant, the symptoms will persist.

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
Interesting angle, I like the way you think. Internally I chalked it up to economic factors. Anecdotally people seem more stressed, pissed off, distracted, broke, and nihilistic.
- milkytron 4y ago
  I've put a lot of thought into this. The societal, financial, health, and environmental costs of our transportation system have wide reaching impacts that should be addressed.
- ChainOfFools 4y ago
  Add to this the the abysmal rate of turn signal use and the increase in entirely preventable collisions due to absent (or misunderstood secondary) indications of driver intent, all of which I highly suspect is nearly one-to-one correlated with an increase in turn signal hands now occupied by phones, which even when not being an active distraction to the driver nonetheless discourage using one's free hand to indicate to the rest of the world how they should accommodate whatever plans you may have for the several thousand pounds of metal you are controlling.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
  The other kind of funny implication about the above analysis is that if it’s true, we would expect highways to become safer again by just simply doing nothing and letting roads become more congested again as population grows.
hotpotamus 4y ago
The unofficial race across the US (unofficial because it's illegal), the Cannonball Run, had its records broken by huge margins in 2020 due to the lockdowns. One small but interesting aspect of the pandemic and a good illustration of your point.
mschuster91 4y ago
Y'all also have two different problems, compared to Europe. The first one is the utter shit that's allowed to legally drive on US roads. Self-built contraptions galore, not to mention many US states seem to not require a regular technical inspection beyond making sure the exhaust system passes limits. Meanwhile here, you have to have your car checked over every two to five years to make sure it's road worthy. If you ignore that long enough, you can actually get hit with a criminal charge. The second one is driver's education. Like, we have dozens of hours theoretical and practical education by accredited institutions ans educators, and exams for both. No such things as self-learned or learned by parents. Germany's roads are very safe, and that despite not much police being on the road - it's rare to get pulled over.
- ChainOfFools 4y ago
  Chalk this up to a persistent influence of "car culture" that sprang up shortly after the interstate highway system went in, and the mass migration to the West Coast and consequent mass distribution of this culture via TV and movies) accompanied it. Other inputs of note are the de facto requirement that nearly everyone has to drive, including people with lots of free time, disposable income (or both) on their hands, which means for the most part young single men addicted to adrenaline rush of speed and prioritize making the car go fast (or appear to go fast), above all else. or old empty nesters finally able to spend their weekends amateur wrenching on some old iron block beast they never could afford to properly maintain as a teen.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  > The second one is driver's education. Like, we have dozens of hours theoretical and practical education by accredited institutions ans educators, and exams for both. No such things as self-learned or learned by parents. Yeah, it leads to massive gaps in people's knowledge about driving. Passing lane hogs are a huge problem in the USA. And nobody knows how to properly drive through a roundabout.
Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
> We need to look further at the cause, which is highway and road design, in addition to the symptoms, which are dangerous driver behaviors. You can address the symptoms, but as long as the cause is still relevant, the symptoms will persist. I watch a lot of dash cam footage and probably the most common cause of crashes related to poor road design are poorly timed traffic light changes when dealing with an unprotected green. Imagine a typical 4-way intersection with traffic lights. All lanes coming from east/west are red. Lanes going north/south are green, with the left turns having an unprotected green. A car is traveling north and is turning left. They've entered the intersection, but are waiting for cars traveling straight south. Then, ALL AT ONCE, the green lights turn yellow. What happens so often? A southbound car guns it to beat their yellow. Meanwhile, the person that was turning left guns it as well to beat THEIR yellow. Boom, you've got a crash. If they were to change the traffic light cycle so that the lanes going straight went yellow and then red FIRST, wait a second, and THEN make the left-turn lanes go yellow and then red, these types of crashes could be significantly reduced.
- Group_B 4y ago
  This is why I never try to beat the light when turning left. Just let it go red first. Much safer.
sschueller 4y ago
There is also a lack of automatic traffic enforcement such a traffic cameras (at least in the north east, I don't know about the rest of the US). Such systems are highly effective and also cost effective. Even if people know where they are located they will slow down and not run red lights.

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago

Interesting angle, I like the way you think. Internally I chalked it up to economic factors. Anecdotally people seem more stressed, pissed off, distracted, broke, and nihilistic.

milkytron 4y ago
I've put a lot of thought into this. The societal, financial, health, and environmental costs of our transportation system have wide reaching impacts that should be addressed.
ChainOfFools 4y ago
Add to this the the abysmal rate of turn signal use and the increase in entirely preventable collisions due to absent (or misunderstood secondary) indications of driver intent, all of which I highly suspect is nearly one-to-one correlated with an increase in turn signal hands now occupied by phones, which even when not being an active distraction to the driver nonetheless discourage using one's free hand to indicate to the rest of the world how they should accommodate whatever plans you may have for the several thousand pounds of metal you are controlling.
SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
The other kind of funny implication about the above analysis is that if it’s true, we would expect highways to become safer again by just simply doing nothing and letting roads become more congested again as population grows.

hotpotamus 4y ago

The unofficial race across the US (unofficial because it's illegal), the Cannonball Run, had its records broken by huge margins in 2020 due to the lockdowns. One small but interesting aspect of the pandemic and a good illustration of your point.

mschuster91 4y ago

Y'all also have two different problems, compared to Europe. The first one is the utter shit that's allowed to legally drive on US roads. Self-built contraptions galore, not to mention many US states seem to not require a regular technical inspection beyond making sure the exhaust system passes limits. Meanwhile here, you have to have your car checked over every two to five years to make sure it's road worthy. If you ignore that long enough, you can actually get hit with a criminal charge. The second one is driver's education. Like, we have dozens of hours theoretical and practical education by accredited institutions ans educators, and exams for both. No such things as self-learned or learned by parents. Germany's roads are very safe, and that despite not much police being on the road - it's rare to get pulled over.

ChainOfFools 4y ago
Chalk this up to a persistent influence of "car culture" that sprang up shortly after the interstate highway system went in, and the mass migration to the West Coast and consequent mass distribution of this culture via TV and movies) accompanied it. Other inputs of note are the de facto requirement that nearly everyone has to drive, including people with lots of free time, disposable income (or both) on their hands, which means for the most part young single men addicted to adrenaline rush of speed and prioritize making the car go fast (or appear to go fast), above all else. or old empty nesters finally able to spend their weekends amateur wrenching on some old iron block beast they never could afford to properly maintain as a teen.
Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
> The second one is driver's education. Like, we have dozens of hours theoretical and practical education by accredited institutions ans educators, and exams for both. No such things as self-learned or learned by parents. Yeah, it leads to massive gaps in people's knowledge about driving. Passing lane hogs are a huge problem in the USA. And nobody knows how to properly drive through a roundabout.

Sohcahtoa82 4y ago

> We need to look further at the cause, which is highway and road design, in addition to the symptoms, which are dangerous driver behaviors. You can address the symptoms, but as long as the cause is still relevant, the symptoms will persist. I watch a lot of dash cam footage and probably the most common cause of crashes related to poor road design are poorly timed traffic light changes when dealing with an unprotected green. Imagine a typical 4-way intersection with traffic lights. All lanes coming from east/west are red. Lanes going north/south are green, with the left turns having an unprotected green. A car is traveling north and is turning left. They've entered the intersection, but are waiting for cars traveling straight south. Then, ALL AT ONCE, the green lights turn yellow. What happens so often? A southbound car guns it to beat their yellow. Meanwhile, the person that was turning left guns it as well to beat THEIR yellow. Boom, you've got a crash. If they were to change the traffic light cycle so that the lanes going straight went yellow and then red FIRST, wait a second, and THEN make the left-turn lanes go yellow and then red, these types of crashes could be significantly reduced.

Group_B 4y ago
This is why I never try to beat the light when turning left. Just let it go red first. Much safer.

sschueller 4y ago

There is also a lack of automatic traffic enforcement such a traffic cameras (at least in the north east, I don't know about the rest of the US). Such systems are highly effective and also cost effective. Even if people know where they are located they will slow down and not run red lights.