Why Cars Rarely Crash into Buildings in the Netherlands

[Veloo]

I think this is a valid argument.
When I'm on a highway and it's clear, I find myself hitting speeds I shouldn't/ normally wouldn't.
Not that I'm suddenly thinking, "YES, time to hit break neck speeds", when I see an open road ahead of me, I just catch myself when I do look at the speedometer and realize I'm well over the limit. I guess you don't feel it as much without cars around you as a reference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_0DgnJ1uQ

[Louis]

Because the don't drive like this?

https://media3.giphy.com/media/OH2rL6DVTNpte/200.gif

[Veloo]

I'd love to hear from our Dutch members on the topic.

[fignon's barber]

Because the don't drive like this?




Excellent post crash roll. Looks like he has a lot of experience at that type of thing. No helmet necessary.

[paredown]

Excellent post crash roll. Looks like he has a lot of experience at that type of thing. No helmet necessary.

Funny, I thought the exact same thing!

[Skenry]

No idea about the Netherlands but I'm a suburban firefighter. We are the ones who get sent on these vehicle into structure incidents. We get sent to more of them than ever, I can remember my first car through the back of the garage call from the mid-90s, but now they all just run together unless somebody gets dead.

We see the occasional delivery truck cutting a close corner and dragging a wall, but I cannot ever, in 24 years, recall a single call where the offending driver was younger than 65. Many times they are still clueless after 4 minutes when we arrive. Sad. We need better driver training initially and yearly on-road driving testing once you get past retirement age.

[CNY rider]

No idea about the Netherlands but I'm a suburban firefighter. We are the ones who get sent on these vehicle into structure incidents. We get sent to more of them than ever, I can remember my first car through the back of the garage call from the mid-90s, but now they all just run together unless somebody gets dead.

We see the occasional delivery truck cutting a close corner and dragging a wall, but I cannot ever, in 24 years, recall a single call where the offending driver was younger than 65. Many times they are still clueless after 4 minutes when we arrive. Sad. We need better driver training initially and yearly on-road driving testing once you get past retirement age.

My uncle, who is a great guy with a fine sense of humor, got his license at 18.
Two months after he gets his license, he is tasked with going to the bank to cash a check. (Yes kiddos, we used to have to do this way back when.)
He parks in front of the bank, comes out after his transaction and proceeds to put the car in drive instead of reverse.
The car lurched forward and smashed into the front wall of the bank.
Do you have any idea what happens when a wall gets smashed at a bank?
Think police. Lots of them, very quickly, with guns drawn.
It's funny to remember now but nobody was laughing that day!

[ahsere]

I don't know how it works in the Netherlands, but in Spain getting your driver's license is quite an ordeal, you need to pass hard tests both written and on the road, I'm not sure but I think it is required to take a course, etc. It takes most people a few months to a year if I remember well.
Here I walked into the DMV, read the booklet a couple of times while sitting in line for the test, and the next day I took the practical test where I had to drive around the neighborhood at low speeds for a whopping ten, maybe 15, minutes. The highlight of the test was parallel parking (with plenty of space).

[NoBlink]

Haha, Dutchie here. I didn’t even know crashing into buildings was a ‘thing’ in the US and Canada. In my almost 30 years on this planet (+/- 28y in NL, and 1y in NY) I have never seen a car that crashed into a building in my area.

Interesting though that the difference can also for a large part be attributed to cultural differences. Also, the Netherlands is really densely populated, with lots of room and specials paths/pavement for bicycles and people walking; so driving is far from stimulated here (high taxes and other ownership costs).

Moreover, when driving, our roads have a lot of traffic/speeding camera’s and ‘trajectory controls’ that calculate your speed between two points that result in heavy fines on your doormat.

Edit: Similar to the post above; passing your driving test can be quite an ordeal here. My brother got his drivers license in the US when we lived there, and then had to retake it here in the Netherlands and failed twice. (Not because he was a bad driver; but because in the US it was so easy and he simply wasn’t tested and trained enough there).

[Frankwurst]

Because the don't drive like this?

https://media3.giphy.com/media/OH2rL6DVTNpte/200.gif

Thanks Louis. I don't care what anybody says that's funny!:beer:

[Bob Ross]

We need better driver training initially and yearly on-road driving testing once you get past retirement age.

QFT

...and I say that as someone who's a stone's throw away from retirement age.

[unterhausen]

I hate to say this, but we really need more speed cameras in the U.S. The areas surrounding us have abolished their police forces so people are used to speeding without consequence (absent crashing).

[old_fat_and_slow]

Because the don't drive like this?

https://media3.giphy.com/media/OH2rL6DVTNpte/200.gif

Holy schitttt! Now that's funny !!! Thanks for posting.

[Skenry]

QFT

...and I say that as someone who's a stone's throw away from retirement age.



I'm getting closer myself too.

[unterhausen]

someone drove into a building here the other day. Wasn't charged. 77 y.o., seems a little young for that sort of thing. It's too bad that it isn't easier to go car-free in this country, but right now there are uber drivers circling State College and it's cheap. When the ride share companies fail, that might not be the case, but there is no better time to be car-free than right now. It has to be cheaper to use uber than own a car.

My current plan is to give up driving when I'm 85, but I may change that depending on circumstances.

[Spaghetti Legs]

I wish that gif was a couple seconds longer because it looks like that guy is going to end up on his feet which would be really sweet.

Interesting video with some good points made. I also enjoyed the linked grocery store video by the same guy.

This is one of the effects of the cars rule culture and the advances in car design. Cars are so well insulated from sound, etc and have such good handling and braking that the driver is completely isolated from the surroundings and has no sense of the flying metal behemoth he/she is in command of. Speed limits make absolutely no sense in a lot of places. 35 mph is a common speed limit in many residential and narrow urban streets and IMO, completely insane.

[Dekonick]

My current plan is to give up driving when I'm 85, but I may change that depending on circumstances.

My plan is to give up driving as soon as the car can drive for me. Hopefully coming sooner than later. The tech is here... and it will be safer for all of the cyclists and pedestrians!

:) Extra bonus - you can text and be driven!

[unterhausen]

The tech is nowhere near ready. Unless they somehow ban all bikes and pedestrians from roads.

[smontanaro]

At 66, I'd be happy to go car-free. Alas, there are still requirements for the car (Costco, at least*). That was part of the point of the video, however. Stores everywhere, close to the street, with bike parking no less.

* Where I live Sam's Club is close enough to bike conveniently, but we're not Walmart peeps.

[tuscanyswe]

How much does a drivers licens cost in US?

Here the average cost of a licens is 2k these days. So its almost a class question of having a licens or not as its becoming more expensive. This may not be great but i like that its not just showing up and then yr qualified to operate a 2ton vechicle at speeds in excess of 100 km/h.

[tuscanyswe]

My plan is to give up driving as soon as the car can drive for me. Hopefully coming sooner than later. The tech is here... and it will be safer for all of the cyclists and pedestrians!

:) Extra bonus - you can text and be driven!

Thats not gonna happen for a long time imo.

[72gmc]

The tech is nowhere near ready. Unless they somehow ban all bikes and pedestrians from roads.

That's what I'm thinking. These times we are in could be used to determine an initial plan around roads reserved for cars and not for cars, which could accelerate the day of the self-driving car. But I don't see the political will to think that far ahead.

[slowpoke]

How much does a drivers licens cost in US?

In the Land of the Free, we believe that driving is a right, even though it's legally a privilege.

As such, obtaining license is less than $100, and in most places you do not need to take a class--just demonstrate that you can move a steering wheel and push two pedals. The written test is a joke, yet somehow a lot of people fail. But don't worry, you can come back again the next day to retake it.

In addition, there's no annual vehicle inspection. The closest thing to that is a Californian smog check that's required every two years. And people even complain about that. Northern Europeans are usually shocked by the occasional smoking junker that's driving around. Snow tire regulations are also not a thing at all. And can you drive with your bumper half falling off without a problem (as long as you're not black).

So given our reluctance against prohibiting idiots from driving, it's no wonder that America has so many car accidents.

[unterhausen]

How much does a drivers licens cost in US?

Here the average cost of a licens is 2k these days. So its almost a class question of having a licens or not as its becoming more expensive.
Most of the fatal crashes here involve younger drivers. Speeding is pretty endemic though, and expensive cars (may or may not mean wealthy) seem to be operated above the speed limit all the time. Crashing into buildings at speed seems to be a fairly egalitarian sport. Hitting a building while parking is usually something only the elderly do.

When I was a teenager, there were some guys re-siding the house next door. They would start drinking at the end of the day, so were probably fairly drunk by the time they left. One day, they drove off, up to the stop sign at the intersection, accelerated wildly and did a wide 180, resulting in leaving their truck partway inside the church on the corner.

[carpediemracing]

I lived in Holland before the road modification mentioned. I visited there after (early/mid 1990s).

I didn't drive but my parents did. I remember a couple things. First, we didn't drive that much, maybe to get groceries, and to go on road trips (friends/relatives in Switzerland and Italy).

As a kid (10-12 year old) I'd take the train into the nearby city (The Hague) and then take trams to random places, go explore, then head back in time for a late dinner. You absolutely did not need a car to get around.

When we moved here we immediately bought a second car. It was impossible to get around with just one car.

Our school bus lost its steering when I was about 7 or 8. It hit a small tree, shattered the windshield, lots of cut faces and blood. When I went back, maybe 15 years later, that tree was still there!

My parents moved back to the area for a few years, living in Spain and Belgium for 3 years each. One thing is that if you hit a cyclist or pedestrian that was a really bad thing. Here it's no big deal. There are a lot of speed bumps and such. And the roads are ultra narrow at times. I don't think that was on purpose, it's just very tight in places.

[unterhausen]

There has been a concerted effort in Europe to narrow roads. And if you shouldn't go fast, they really make that obvious. I have thought that chicanes would work in a lot of places. Like on the nearby bypass, there is a curve where trucks crash all the time because it's a downhill off-camber turn and they want to go 85mph on it. But in some small towns in France, they have a chicane at the town borders and they don't do a thing. Got to narrow the roads.

[PacNW2Ford]

Much higher percentage of manual transmissions too. Harder to misapply pedals when you have to use two to make the car move.

[Gsinill]

How much does a drivers licens cost in US?


Beyond cost: My driving test after moving to the US took about 2 minutes.
50 yards straight and the same in reverse.
Done!

[NoBlink]

Beyond cost: My driving test after moving to the US took about 2 minutes.
50 yards straight and the same in reverse.
Done!


Over here in the Netherlands, the average number of driving lessons people need in order to get their license is around 40 (so that is 40x 1 hour in the car with an instructor). Furthermore you’d need to pass a theoretical test as well before you can have your driving examination.

The average cost in total according to the Dutch DMV: +/- $2800,-

[oldpotatoe]

QFT

...and I say that as someone who's a stone's throw away from retirement age.

Had to look that up..I agree(me post 'retirement age')...but my Dad drove until he was about 85 or so and that was down right scary.....

[unterhausen]

85 is when my dad was cleaning his glasses and totaled his car and the one stopped at a traffic light in front of him. Could have been worse, I suppose. That's when I decided I would stop driving at 85. He did stop, but as dementia got bad, he kept trying to get someone to take him to the DMV to renew his license.

[paredown]

In the Land of the Free, we believe that driving is a right, even though it's legally a privilege.

As such, obtaining license is less than $100, and in most places you do not need to take a class--just demonstrate that you can move a steering wheel and push two pedals. The written test is a joke, yet somehow a lot of people fail. But don't worry, you can come back again the next day to retake it.

In addition, there's no annual vehicle inspection. The closest thing to that is a Californian smog check that's required every two years. And people even complain about that. Northern Europeans are usually shocked by the occasional smoking junker that's driving around. Snow tire regulations are also not a thing at all. And can you drive with your bumper half falling off without a problem (as long as you're not black).

So given our reluctance against prohibiting idiots from driving, it's no wonder that America has so many car accidents.
NYS still requires an annual inspection--but no automatic smog check--just a visual to see if the plumbing is there and that there are no codes showing.

They actually even take off one wheel to make sure that the brakes are in decent shape, and check the emergency brake.

[unterhausen]

the inspection station on Hill AFB got caught pencil-whipping inspections for friends and the state forced them to put in a brake dyno. The mechanic drives the car onto the dyno at some set speed which is fairly high considering your brakes might not work. It was exciting to watch our car come flying through the garage door.