Toyota 86 High speed chase (Australia)

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

No, what he means is that if every vehicle drives 3x as many miles per year you'd expect 3x as many fatalities per vehicle.
So what we're looking for is annual fatalities per distance driven in vehicles.
Which should be dramatically worse numbers for Norway; since our roads tend to be short, winding, narrow and slippery.

Having driven rentals in both US and Australia; distances, traffic and road conditions are very similar. So I'd really like to see comparable fatality statistics factoring in distance driven, because any difference there will be purely cultural.

-And all this is totally OT, of course. My bad :-)

The US and Canada still have you beat.

I will say without a doubt I will never drive in Brazil though!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ted_death_rate

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by Shinigami301

Now do the math for miles driven in each of those countries per vehicle, per year. USA number is up there.

Originally Posted by Tcoat

The US and Canada still have you beat.

I will say without a doubt I will never drive in Brazil though!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ted_death_rate

Good ol' Tcoat found it. (I didn't notice the column the first time.)


Road fatalities per 1 billion vehicle-km | My assessment of road standards
Sweden: 3.5 | B
Norway: 4.4 | C
Germany: 4.9 | A
Australia: 5.2 | A
Canada: 6.2 | (never driven)
USA: 7.1 | A
Japan: 8.0 | (never driven)
Brazil: 55.9 | (never driven)

So, American death rate is twice as high as Sweden, despite the fact that American roads are wider and straighter, Sweden has a long winter and they drive much faster.
I have no idea why, I just find it interesting.

Oh, and Brazilian roads are a death traps.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

Good ol' Tcoat found it. (I didn't notice the column the first time.)


Road fatalities per 1 billion vehicle-km | My assessment of road standards
Sweden: 3.5 | B
Norway: 4.4 | C
Germany: 4.9 | A
Australia: 5.2 | A
Canada: 6.2 | (never driven)
USA: 7.1 | A
Japan: 8.0 | (never driven)
Brazil: 55.9 | (never driven)

So, American death rate is twice as high as Sweden, despite the fact that American roads are wider and straighter, Sweden has a long winter and they drive much faster.
I have no idea why, I just find it interesting.

Oh, and Brazilian roads are a death traps.

I would say winter driving has very little effect on the stats. Looking at the numbers by state the south/central ones blow the rest away. The only exception is Alaska and I wonder how many of those fatalities were from hitting moose and other large animals.

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/ge...state-overview

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I would say winter driving has very little effect on the stats. Looking at the numbers by state the south/central ones blow the rest away. The only exception is Alaska and I wonder how many of those fatalities were from hitting moose and other large animals.

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/ge...state-overview

Mrs. Sarlacc points at drunk driving laws as a possible contributing factor. So I looked it up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk_...law_by_country

Acceptable limit of blood alcohol content before a person is charged with a crime
Canada: 0.08% (0% in BC)
United States: Depends on state, 0.08% or 0.05%
Sweden: 0.02%
Norway: 0.02%
Australia: Complicated, 0% or 0.02% or 0.05%

I always wondered about those Hollywood scenes when people drink at bars and then drive home.
That's not socially acceptable in Scandinavia. People would call the police if they saw it happen.

[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

Mrs. Sarlacc points at drunk driving laws as a possible contributing factor. So I looked it up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk_...law_by_country

Acceptable limit of blood alcohol content before a person is charged with a crime
Canada: 0.08% (0% in BC)
United States: Depends on state, 0.08% or 0.05%
Sweden: 0.02%
Norway: 0.02%
Australia: Complicated, 0% or 0.02% or 0.05%

I always wondered about those Hollywood scenes when people drink at bars and then drive home.
That's not socially acceptable in Scandinavia. People would call the police if they saw it happen.

0.02% What is that a 1/2 beer? Since the new "0.5% take you car for up to 30 days" law came along I won't have a single one. I wish they would just get it overwith and call in zero tolerance...

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by new2subaru

0.02% What is that a 1/2 beer?

I don't know, I never bothered to find out, I don't drink and drive anyway. I know I'm quite tipsy at 0.08% though.

Originally Posted by new2subaru

Since the new "0.5% take you car for up to 30 days" law came along I won't have a single one.

Sounds good.

Originally Posted by new2subaru

I wish they would just get it overwith and call in zero tolerance...

I'd be fine with that.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

Road fatalities per 1 billion vehicle-km | My assessment of road standards
Sweden: 3.5 | B
Norway: 4.4 | C
Germany: 4.9 | A
Australia: 5.2 | A
Canada: 6.2 | (never driven)
USA: 7.1 | A
Japan: 8.0 | (never driven)
Brazil: 55.9 | (never driven)

So, American death rate is twice as high as Sweden, despite the fact that American roads are wider and straighter, Sweden has a long winter and they drive much faster.
I have no idea why, I just find it interesting.

You clearly haven't sampled enough roads in Pennsylvania... or New Hampshire... etc...

And better roads mean higher speed crashes, which in turn means higher percentage of crashes with fatalities. If you can't physically get to 60mph (~100kph?) on a road without crashing, you can't crash at that speed.

Edit: exactly how fast do Swedish folks drive?

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by Spuds

You clearly haven't sampled enough roads in Pennsylvania... or New Hampshire... etc...

And better roads mean higher speed crashes, which in turn means higher percentage of crashes with fatalities. If you can't physically get to 60mph (~100kph?) on a road without crashing, you can't crash at that speed.

Edit: exactly how fast do Swedish folks drive?

No, my experience is limited to Florida, New York, California and Nevada. I've always wanted to see more of your great country, but that's not going to happen now.

I drove past a huge sign in Joshua Tree once. It said something like "RV's must turn back here because road ahead is narrow" and the road ahead actually was much wider and straighter than the mountain passes in Norway, where most of the commercial fish export bound for Europe is transported on 18-wheelers and semi-trailer trucks all year round.
That made me think that the good people of California are used to better roads than I am.

The speed limit on Swedish highways is 110 km/h but they're not really enforced and below 150 it's just small fines anyway, so the leftmost lane typically trods along at 130-140 km/h.
City traffic in Stockholm and Gothenburg (cities in Sweden) feels much faster paced than it does in LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, etc. although I won't venture any numbers on that.

All in all, in my experience, traffic in the US feels slow, polite and safe compared to Europe. So those death rates surprises me.

[Ultramaroon]

I Northern Appalachia.

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

I Northern Appalachia

Who? Is that Sasquatch's sister?

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

Who? Is that Sasquatch's sister?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...hian_Mountains

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...hian_Mountains

Ok :-)

I was going to say something about funny geographical names, but then I realized someone was bound to look at a map of Norway and make me look stupid, so I won't :-)

I will, however, tell you about a friend of mine who went to Mobile, Alabama and was very disappointed to discover the town was quite stationary.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

Ok :-)

I was going to say something about funny geographical names, but then I realized someone was bound to look at a map of Norway and make me look stupid, so I won't :-)

I will, however, tell you about a friend of mine who went to Mobile, Alabama and was very disappointed to discover the town was quite stationary.

I'm incapable of avoiding looking stupid. I gave up years ago.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

I will, however, tell you about a friend of mine who went to Mobile, Alabama and was very disappointed to discover the town was quite stationary.

Only in one inertial frame.