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Miles_vel_Day t1_jefe9br wrote

Reply to comment by 1234nameuser in traffic cameras on major highways by Maleficent-Ad6523

Speaking as a member of the private sector who is involved in road safety and is extremely interested in reducing auto fatalities, let me say that "the US" is not in total agreement on whether we should try to improve traffic safety.

Things have backslid really badly since I started my career, it's heartbreaking. Fatalities were increasing even before the pandemic, up about 15% from 2013 to 2019. Now they're up about 30%. (They were level in 21-22, so maybe we've arrested the upward trend, but it's time to bring it back down.)

It's gotta be distracted driving. The sad part is, even knowing that, I still can't say fully truthfully that I never look at my phone for a second when I'm driving.

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1234nameuser t1_jefg9zr wrote

It's far too vast of a topic to be attributed to any one metric. Miles driven have plummeted the past few years, yet deaths are way up. All the following and many many more factors are all at play:

  1. phones
  2. bigger cars
  3. faster speeds
  4. NO enforcement
  5. lack of pedestrian infrastructure in growing population centers
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Miles_vel_Day t1_jefi2a5 wrote

Vehicle miles traveled has rebounded; it was about 99.3% of its 2019 levels in 2022. (Maybe like 95-97% of what would be expected if growth had continued uninterrupted.) Those are all good places to look for improvement, though.

Speed and Enforcement: Speed has definitely gotten a lot worse, since speeding was essentially legalized during the pandemic and enforcement has not kept up with the need for it since.

Big Cars: Bigger cars a problem, especially when they get in crashes with much smaller cars. It's also a problem that people feel safer in bigger cars - and they actually are, statistically. But everybody else is less safe, and their feeling of safety might make them more careless at the wheel.

Lack of pedestrian infrastructure: Not sure about this one... modern design practices should be, if gradually, leading to better outcomes for pedestrians, but instead they're getting worse. I think pedestrians are just in more danger for the reasons that drivers have gotten more reckless overall.

Another thing that might be playing a factor is an over-reliance on safety features like adaptive cruise control, or worse yet, the Tesla stuff, resulting in drivers who aren't ready to take control when they need to be.

I think the best thing we could do for traffic safety, really, is to have the Ad Council blast out the message that you need to leave proper following distance and should generally try to maximize your distance from other drivers.

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throwawaysscc t1_jefwi7f wrote

Too much hurry and distraction. Driving a car so simplifies modern life that few regard driving as a deadly serious activity rife with potential terrifying consequences. Every message from manufacturers is happy, dandy, freedom and power themed. Car culture has us all conditioned to overlook death and destruction daily and internalize it as an acceptable result of cars everywhere. As a pedestrian, biker and transit rider, it’s infuriating.

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Miles_vel_Day t1_jefwyki wrote

That makes me think of another problem with car culture, that's kind of the mirror image of the phenomenon you're describing...

Like you said, a lot of people just forget driving is dangerous. But for people who haven't forgotten, we just get used to living at a certain level of life-or-death stress, for possibly hours a day, when we're in our cars. I don't think it's very conducive to overall happiness.

Don't get me wrong, driving is a really easy game, and it's fun to play sometimes, but the consequences of slipping up and losing can be pretty rough.

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1234nameuser t1_jefy7kg wrote

RE infrastructure.......I come from TX where gentrification is dramatically densifying old urban cores that lack proper infrastructure.

However, that gentrification is also driving lower incomes to fill up the suburbs / exurbs that were never planned with proper pedestrian infrastructure to begin with.....no will it be affordable for decades to come.

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1234nameuser t1_jefjxsv wrote

Thanks and agreed on all points.

My wishlist is just no passing on the right, speed cameras, and fines tied directly to a percentage of income.

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Nigel_IncubatorJones t1_jeg53uu wrote

The problem with speed cameras is they can't prove who was driving, so the registered owner gets the ticket when it could have been a family member or friend that was driving the car.

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flatdanny t1_jefmr65 wrote

(6)insufficient mass transit infrastructure to reduce highway traffic volume.

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AvogadrosMoleSauce t1_jegqi4s wrote

>Things have backslid really badly

As a licensed engineer, it’s really depressing and frustrating.

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