Re:When cities treated cars as dangerous intruders
by tzs on Sunday July 31, 2022 @11:39AM
(#32296289)
>> But the roads would have been used for something, at a guess, was it trams and horse carriages, and that these didn't pose much of a problem?
> Much less so, horses would not trample people unless spooked (and they don't have anywhere near the acceleration or speed of a car, especially as mass increases).
That's what one would expect, but surprisingly that might not be the case.
I haven't been able to find a lot of articles about pedestrian deaths from horses but those I did find tell of rates comparable to cars.
1900 pedestrian horse fatality rate in NYC for example were higher than the 2003 car rate [1]. In England and Wales cars are more deadly than horses were but not by much [2].
The BMJ article notes that direct fatality rate comparisons might not be appropriate because treatments have greatly improved since the horse and buggy days. Horse rates would likely be lower if current treatments had been available back then, and car rates would likely be higher if we only had 1900s medical systems.
> Much less so, horses would not trample people unless spooked (and they don't have anywhere near the acceleration or speed of a car, especially as mass increases).
That's what one would expect, but surprisingly that might not be the case.
I haven't been able to find a lot of articles about pedestrian deaths from horses but those I did find tell of rates comparable to cars.
1900 pedestrian horse fatality rate in NYC for example were higher than the 2003 car rate [1]. In England and Wales cars are more deadly than horses were but not by much [2].
The BMJ article notes that direct fatality rate comparisons might not be appropriate because treatments have greatly improved since the horse and buggy days. Horse rates would likely be lower if current treatments had been available back then, and car rates would likely be higher if we only had 1900s medical systems.
[1] https://legallysociable.com/2012/09/07/figures-more-deaths-p...
[2] https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/31/cars-and-horse...