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But your standards of bad driving are based on what you're used to in the US. So things that we consider bad practice wouldn't even flag on your radar. So, yes

But your standards of bad driving are based on what you're used to in the US. So things that we consider bad practice wouldn't even flag on your radar. So, yes, people make the same high level driving mistakes in the US and around europe. The problem the US has is that the normal day to day driving is so much worse. Tailgating in particular is extremely common in the US. It scares the heck out of me when idiots behind me driving within two car length of me at over 65 MpH even when there is space enough behind them that they could easily double that gap, still arrive at their destination at the same time, and if I needed to stop suddenly they wouldn't rear end me.

moron4hire 11y ago
Yet somehow we haven't killed ourselves off yet. I'm just bothered by the wording. To call driving in the US "extraordinarily dangerous" is just hyperbole. It might be quantitatively "more dangerous" than the UK, but there really isn't anything to fear going out on the roads in the US. The way these sorts of articles are written, they make it sound like you need to don a suit of armor and make sure your will is up to date every time you step outside, lest a car comes hurtling off the road and wipes out your entire family. I'm not trying to condone driving drunk, but drunk-driving out in the middle of nowhere like in the shock story cherry-picked for the opening article just isn't as assuredly insta-death as MADD would like you to believe. Yes, tailgating is relatively more dangerous than not tailgating. Is tailgating objectively dangerous? The fact that millions of people do it every day and still live to tell the tail suggests otherwise. "Alcohol is a factor in 1/3rd of road deaths". Yeah, but what factor is it in road survivals? Road statistics have never been conducted in a sound manner.
jessaustin 11y ago
It scares the heck out of me when idiots behind me driving within two car length of me at over 65 MpH... Drive here long enough, and you won't even notice those guys. After all what are they really going to do to you? They're going to pass you when the road straightens out so they can see what's coming in the other lane. Let them pass, but at all times pay enough attention to what's in front of you that you'll never need to "stop suddenly". A rear-end accident is always the trailing driver's fault, but the leading driver could always have avoided it by paying more attention to the road, and slowing down when conditions warrant, before it's necessary to suddenly stop. [EDIT: of course there are exceptions, like a friend of mine who had been stopped at a red light for 30 seconds when he got blasted from behind by some blind person...]

moron4hire 11y ago

Yet somehow we haven't killed ourselves off yet. I'm just bothered by the wording. To call driving in the US "extraordinarily dangerous" is just hyperbole. It might be quantitatively "more dangerous" than the UK, but there really isn't anything to fear going out on the roads in the US. The way these sorts of articles are written, they make it sound like you need to don a suit of armor and make sure your will is up to date every time you step outside, lest a car comes hurtling off the road and wipes out your entire family. I'm not trying to condone driving drunk, but drunk-driving out in the middle of nowhere like in the shock story cherry-picked for the opening article just isn't as assuredly insta-death as MADD would like you to believe. Yes, tailgating is relatively more dangerous than not tailgating. Is tailgating objectively dangerous? The fact that millions of people do it every day and still live to tell the tail suggests otherwise. "Alcohol is a factor in 1/3rd of road deaths". Yeah, but what factor is it in road survivals? Road statistics have never been conducted in a sound manner.

jessaustin 11y ago

It scares the heck out of me when idiots behind me driving within two car length of me at over 65 MpH... Drive here long enough, and you won't even notice those guys. After all what are they really going to do to you? They're going to pass you when the road straightens out so they can see what's coming in the other lane. Let them pass, but at all times pay enough attention to what's in front of you that you'll never need to "stop suddenly". A rear-end accident is always the trailing driver's fault, but the leading driver could always have avoided it by paying more attention to the road, and slowing down when conditions warrant, before it's necessary to suddenly stop. [EDIT: of course there are exceptions, like a friend of mine who had been stopped at a red light for 30 seconds when he got blasted from behind by some blind person...]