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Why Sweden has so few road deaths
- sscalia 13y agoThey make no mention of much better driver training; higher-quality and routinely inspected automobiles; less traffic; and cultural values that probably play a huge role. *Edited Typo
- thenmar 13y agoWikipedia says Swedish drivers can't get a fully-privileged license until they're 20 or 21. Compare that to the U.S. where in many states a 16 year old who took a single practical driving test is considered fully qualified. I wonder how much of a difference that makes.
- sharkweek 13y agoI think back to myself at 16 and cringe at the thought of me being allowed to drive a car...
- toki5 13y agoThe very first time I drove alone after getting my license, I was backing out of my parents' driveway and managed to put huge scrapes in three cars because I didn't have a strong enough understanding of how the world worked in reverse. Because all three cars were ours, and it occurred on our property, there were no tickets, no police activity, no DMV penalties, nothing -- if my parents hadn't been strict (and thank GOD they were), I could've just kept driving. I also cringe at the thought of that happening, because I, like a lot of 16 year olds, was really stupid.
- coldcode 13y agoMy parents had me drive a VW station wagon with a Bug engine, automatic transmission and AC. I think I could walk faster. I think the only ticket I could get was for going too slow.
- nerfhammer 13y agoLess than you might think. Studies have consistently shown that experience matters much more than age. Though holding experience constant 17 year olds are more likely to get in accidents than 22 year olds, an 18 year old with two years of driving experience is much less likely to get into an accident than a 25 year old with 1 year of driving experience. Furthermore, accident rates start increasing with age at only the mid 20's, perhaps due to decreasing reaction time with age.
- jeremysmyth 13y agoDoes this include fatalities?
- sukuriant 13y agoInteresting that the comments on the article make some good points, including that the UK has about the same / a better deaths per capita than Sweden, despite it being the exact opposite type of road environment [edit: clarified wording some]
- gweinberg 13y agoI don't think you want to see per capita, you want to see per driver-mile.
- sukuriant 13y agoIt looks like that's lower in Sweden, too, but the comments give more of a suggestion of that, not a direct statement.
- AnthonyMouse 13y ago> I don't think you want to see per capita, you want to see per driver-mile. Not necessarily. Having e.g. a functional mass transit system that allows people to drive less is a perfectly valid way to reduce traffic fatalities.
- mattvot 13y agoCan someone explain how the 2+1 lanes work and how they would reduce road deaths?
- matt__rose 13y agoMost inter-city roads in Sweden were 2-lane roads, where to overtake, you needed to swerve into oncoming traffic, 2+1 roads means that even if you're stuck behind an RV or truck, it won't be long before you can safely overtake. At least that's my assumption...
- mkempe 13y agoYou may (and physically can) only overtake when there are two lanes going in your direction. The road alternates every couple of km between 1 and 2 lanes in each direction.
- jack-r-abbit 13y agoI had the same question as the parent comment. Perhaps I still don't understand. Doesn't that just create a bottleneck every couple of km? It seems to me that around here one of the biggest causes of traffic appears to be when ever there is a lane reduction.
- donall 13y agoI think the theory is that the middle lane is only used for overtaking slower-moving cars. Perhaps the Swedes, like the Germans, practice good lane discipline and stick to the right until they need to overtake. I think this 2+1 wouldn't work in the US because (in my experience) very few people use the lanes correctly and they just distribute themselves evenly across all lanes, regardless of speed. That strategy does, indeed, lead to bottlenecks when the number of lanes reduces.
- statusgraph 13y agoThis is normal in the US for roads in mountains (going uphill) and it generally works great.
- carsongross 13y ago"That’s interesting, because in America, among Scandinavians, we have no poverty, either" --Milton Friedman
- matt__rose 13y agoWow, that just goes to show how ignorant Milton Friedman is...
- baddox 13y agoWhat about that statement demonstrates ignorance?
- adventured 13y agoThe data mostly backs up Friedman's quip. So where's the ignorance exactly? http://www.cato.org/blog/swedens-big-welfare-state-superior-americas-medium-welfare-state-then-why-do-swedes-america http://www.cato.org/blog/swedens-big-welfare-state-superior-... "The 4.4 million or so Americans with Swedish origins are considerably richer than average Americans, as are other immigrant groups from Scandinavia. If Americans with Swedish ancestry were to form their own country, their per capita GDP would be $56,900, more than $10,000 above the income of the average American. This is also far above Swedish GDP per capita, at $36,600. Swedes living in the USA are thus approximately 53 per cent more wealthy than Swedes (excluding immigrants) in their native country (OECD, 2009; US Census database). It should be noted that those Swedes who migrated to the USA, predominately in the nineteenth century, were anything but the elite. Rather, it was often those escaping poverty and famine. …A Scandinavian economist once said to Milton Friedman, ‘In Scandinavia, we have no poverty’. Milton Friedman replied, ‘That’s interesting, because in America, among Scandinavians, we have no poverty, either’. Indeed, the poverty rate for Americans with Swedish ancestry is only 6.7 per cent: half the US average (US Census)."
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- vacri 13y ago
- lifeisstillgood 13y agotl;dr Sweden has 3 road deaths per 100,000 capita while Eurozone has 5.5 and USA 11. This is because Sweden build their roads with safety first (Lower speed limits, better physical seperation of pedestrians and care). But ... Deaths per capita is a broad statistic. What about broken down by urban and non urban areas? Pedestrian v cycle v motorised deaths. In the end what is the null value for deaths per capita comparisons? Is 3/100,000 and 5.5 actually statistically significant? As for the comments on thread that say "yet another swedes do it all better than us article" - well In my view scandanavian and Dutch politics all have a much less emotional more "strict mother" approach to many political debates - road safety is just one such. And we know better decisions about hard subjects are made with emotion safely caged.
- 001sky 13y agoDeaths per road mile would be a more interesting statistic.
- Crito 13y agoI suspect that extremely long but relatively untraveled roads would throw that statistic off. A disused 200 mile long country road across North Dakota would probably easily offset high pedestrian deaths across a few blocks in a city. Sure, you're less likely to die on it.. but you're also less likely to be on it in the first place. Working in road usage could possibly correct this.
- craigvn 13y agoIn Australia we are often told country roads are the most dangerous. Drivers are less likely to concentrate, easily fall asleep at the wheel and speed. And trees are not very forgiving when you drive into one.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jcampbell1 13y agoFrom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-re... Deaths per terameter driven. Sweden 3.2 Norway 3.5 UK 3.6 .... USA 8.5 .... UAE 310
- shazow 13y agoThere was a Planet Money podcast episode[1] which mentions that Americans are far less likely to wear a seatbelt, at least compared to Germans but also probably Scandinavian countries as well. According to Wikipedia[2], the US is definitely worse than Sweden, Germany, and Norway in terms of seat belt usage. But at least it's better than Italy, Greece, and the Czech Republic. I suspect this is a big factor in road deaths. [1] http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/12/171814201/episode-435-why-buying-a-car-is-so-awful http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/12/171814201/episode-... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_use_rates_by_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_use_rates_by_country
- lazylizard 13y agominor thing about their speed-bumps..apparently they're trying out things like http://www.edeva.se/index.php/actibump/ http://www.edeva.se/index.php/actibump/