As US Road Deaths Rise, France Is Safer Than Ever. Why?
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
While I don't know for a fact she was texting, you know what the penalty is in KY for texting while driving? $25. No wonder people ignore the law.
Mentally though, a whole other story. Apart from the witness who was behind me (who was crying and shaking as she approached my car from the trauma of seeing the impact), it didn’t seem like the police or any bystanders gave a shit beyond getting the accident cleared out. I was expecting them to sobriety test her or be ticketed or something, but she hid in her vehicle until her parents showed up and that was that.
It was three months until insurance paid out, and we amassed a couple grand worth of debt in rentals so my wife could get to work. That one is on me for not getting the rental coverage, I won’t make that mistake again next time.
All this to say, I am certain that driver is back on the road and won’t face any consequences other than a more expensive policy. Just infuriating.
Road users have (generally) a more considerate attitude to other users. While I was living in France for about a year, many times I was manoeuvring on a road and blocking it. In Australia and the US, that would be a perfect opportunity for them to blast me with the horn. In France though, the other driver(s) would wait quietly and allow me to finish my procedure.
That was a very noticeable thing. It happened so often that I respected it, and took on those attitudes myself, even after I returned home.
Another reason is better roads. French roads are (generally) in good condition. US roads, as part of the crumbling national infrastructure, not so much.
Pedestrian accidents in the US are mostly low speed but now you take a full, flat hit rather than crumpling over the hood.
And as much as I hate the profiteers, maybe $5/gal gas will finally get some people to pay fscking attention and buy a smaller car.
2) Don't pedestrian accidents almost always bear some fault on the vehicle driver in the EU?
That would tend to create a much different set of incentives than in the US where "accidents" are pretty much never considered the fault of the driver unless the driver is completely wasted.
The interviewee, Yonah Freemark wrote two blog posts about his study: https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/us-traffic-fatalities-risin...
https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/us-could-taxing-heavy-cars-...
This is going to be really hard problem for the US to work on. Can you imagine Americans voting to have their cars taxed more, just because they are successful and can afford a nice, big car? Maybe in one state, but not the other 49.
Maybe the part about closing off parts of cities to make them safely walkable will be more successful.
Not mentioned in the article, but I’d be very curious to see how cities where individuals are responsible for sidewalks compared to where governments are. In Denver a homeowner is supposed to repair the sidewalk in front of their home, obviously leading people to walk in the road on rare occasions of extreme disrepair.
Pedestrians don’t respect red lights in Paris and habitually cross them. Motorists and cars frequently pass the red lights, sometimes maneuvering with front wheel raised off the ground (which seems to be a French thing). The driving in EU is violent, even in Germany where racing and high speed driving is in culture. On the contrary, lack of respect for rules is part of the French identity AFAIK
https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/vb99j1/france_is_...
There are many factors for accidents, a few of them discussed in the article.
I wasted a lot of time and got burned out in the public transportation system.
But the experience was better in some cities, eg, in German ones.
Do you have any actual examples?
Unions are powerful and perennially on strike: unsustainable retirement benefits (the topic of the last major strike), income, etc. The income of an unskilled transportation worker is similar to, or even better than, that of a scientist (see CNRS salaries online); the benefits are significant too.
And when Germany strikes, it is tough. The whole city took their cars, leading to never ending traffic jam. You were faster by bike than by car.