Quote:
Originally Posted by verticaldoug
Roads are just dangerous for everyone. 3x the rate of other developed countries.
Shared linked from a paying account, so should work.
https://on.ft.com/3U8tih5
I have good news and bad news about America’s roads. The good news is the number of people killed in traffic collisions fell by almost 4 per cent in 2023. The bad news is the mortality rate on US roads is still 25 per cent up on a decade earlier, and three times the rate of the average developed country. |
Thanks for sharing. This article is sort of getting at something that seems very obvious to me, but I don't see anyone else talking about when we look at the appalling rate of road deaths and injuries in the US.
The fact is that we have allowed a small minority of utterly insane, antisocial, aggressive drivers to do whatever the heck they want on the roads without the slightest fear of consequences or enforcement of traffic infractions.
While things like larger vehicles, unwalkable suburbs, high-speed arterial road design in residential communities, and other structural factors clearly have a part to play, I think that these are only increasing fatalities around the margins.
When I'm out cycling, I am clearly in danger not because of all the above things, but because I know I am out on the road with antisocial maniacs who would kill you to get to Target 30 seconds faster or wherever the heck they think they're going.
And I do mean a minority of awful drivers. In NYC, the ongoing joke was every time you looked up the plate of someone that killed someone with their vehicle, they had 25+ speeding tickets in school zones, 3+_infractions for driving without a license, $100,000 in unpaid parking tickets, etc. etc. etc. These people are not normal! And we are allowing this small minority of people to put the rest of us in mortal danger!
Road safety is going to have to start with aggressive enforcement of the laws that are already on the books, with jail time and similar penalties for messing around. That's how it was when I drove in the 90s and I see no reason that can't work again.