Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by porknubbins on Thursday July 21, 2022 @05:56PM (#32185706)

Yes the author seems to state that there are many more traffic deaths than commercial transport deaths as if the point is self evident but I do not see it. From my perspective its a minor miracle that there aren't more traffic deaths. We let any private individual drive up to a 20,000 something pound vehicle with pretty minimal licensing requirements (in most places in the US). The news story is that it mostly goes ok.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by kennywinker on Thursday July 21, 2022 @06:31PM (#32186045)

Not sure 40k deaths per year and countless more severe injuries, permanent disabilities, and financial destitutions count as it going mostly ok

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by 988747 on Thursday July 21, 2022 @07:15PM (#32186438)

It can be if you compare it to:

1. Total US population, and total deaths per year

2. Amount of miles traveled yearly.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by scoofy on Thursday July 21, 2022 @08:23PM (#32186984)

Except that they are dramatically higher than in comparable countries. It's very obvious that the US is overwhelmingly worse off in traffic deaths.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by sicp-enjoyer on Thursday July 21, 2022 @11:02PM (#32187974)

Do americans travel more miles than is typical in those countries?

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by scoofy on Friday July 22, 2022 @01:03AM (#32188706)

Measure in “trips” not miles. Measuring in miles rewards suburban culture. Highway driving isn’t where deaths happen. They happen most on urban roads.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by throwaway0a5e on Friday July 22, 2022 @08:18AM (#32191144)

Screw you both.

Measure butt-in-seat hours.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by scoofy on Friday July 22, 2022 @11:07AM (#32192717)

That doesn’t count people who don’t get in a car wreck, simply because they walked to buy groceries

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by throwaway0a5e on Friday July 22, 2022 @11:09AM (#32192747)

Aren't we comparing drivers vs drivers here?

If we aren't then you're just measuring the fraction of the population that drives (which is largely a reflection of wealth and demographics) which isn't really a measurement of the safeness of the roads and driving.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by scoofy on Friday July 22, 2022 @11:21AM (#32192914)

We’re talking about people killed trying to move around the place they live. Butt-in-seat hours is a fine way to measure automobile vs automobile stats, but when we’re talking about deaths from transportation, counting only automobile hours is silly. There are various ways to get around a city, and the way you do that hardly matters if it suits the purposes of that trip.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by Moru on Friday July 22, 2022 @12:51AM (#32188648)

Very mixed ages and completeness of the data in this list [1] but it seems USA is pretty high on death per kilometer (fifth) of those countries that has data on kilometer traveled.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by kloch on Thursday July 21, 2022 @09:22PM (#32187363)

> drive up to a 20,000 something pound vehicle

Specifically in the US the limit is 26,000 lbs GVWR without a CDL. That is the gross vehicle rating cannot be over 26,000 lbs, even if it actually weighs less when driven.

I've always assumed that exceeding the GVWR is illegal but searches show conflicting results.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by throwaway6734 on Thursday July 21, 2022 @06:08PM (#32185816)

my personal theory is that people's overconfidence in their ability as drivers and underestimating the risk of driving ends up making the process much safer than if people were more grounded in reality

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by elihu on Thursday July 21, 2022 @06:57PM (#32186283)

I could see that possibly being true. I mean, driving is kind of weird; it seems to be mostly done with a part of the brain that can operate automatically with little conscious effort. It's sort of like playing the piano: if I'm playing some piece that I know well I probably won't screw up unless I actually try to consciously think about what I'm doing, which is when things fall apart.

That said, I think people should be reasonably safety-conscious about vehicle maintenance, avoiding risky situations, and avoiding things that could sabotage the automatic-driving part of their brain, like doing other things at the same time that require their attention and their hands and eyes.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by throwaway6734 on Thursday July 21, 2022 @07:51PM (#32186742)

Agree!

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by iforgotpassword on Thursday July 21, 2022 @06:13PM (#32185860)

Now I'm really curious for the reasoning behind that.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by throwaway6734 on Thursday July 21, 2022 @07:46PM (#32186703)

I think it's like the difference between balancing on a plank of wood a foot off the ground and one ten feet off the ground. The act is the same, but the perception of risk is way different and the performance would be as well

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by 988747 on Thursday July 21, 2022 @07:17PM (#32186458)

It's not even about confidence. It's a matter of being in control. When you drive you can do something about whether or not you crash. When you are a passenger in a plane or train you are completely helpless.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by incompatible on Thursday July 21, 2022 @11:27PM (#32188152)

Apparently, such confidence is misplaced, and people "in control" crash a lot more often than helpless passengers.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by vineyardmike on Thursday July 21, 2022 @06:51PM (#32186209)

Or everyone’s overconfidence and underestimation means there’s no appetite for people to accept regulation and change. because I’m not the problem and I’m in control, I shouldn’t expect change. Meanwhile when you fly, you know you’re at the hands of someone else, and you want to control them as much as possible.

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Re:Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes by juve1996 on Friday July 22, 2022 @09:19AM (#32191603)

You don't even have to use a plane as an example.

Be a passenger in a car with a driver you're unfamiliar with. Lots of people struggle with that and way overestimate the speeds the driver is going at.

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