Despite the ever increasing safety of our vehicle and road designs, traffic fatality rates are no longer decreasing. Since late 2014, they have been dramatically rising: "Itasca, IL – Preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council indicate motor vehicle deaths were 9% higher through the first six months of 2016 than in 2015, and 18% higher than two years ago at the six month mark. An estimated 19,100 people have been killed on U.S. roads since January, and 2.2 million were seriously injured. The total estimated cost of these deaths and injuries is $205 billion. The upward trend began in late 2014 and shows no signs of decreasing. Last winter, the National Safety Council issued its largest year-over-year percentage increase in 50 years, when it estimated fatalities had jumped 8% in 2015 compared to 2014. The continued rise in fatalities is prompting the Council to issue its highest fatality estimate for the Labor Day holiday period since 2008. NSC estimates 438 people will be killed during the three-day holiday weekend.[ii] " Motor Vehicle Fatalities Up 9%; No Sign of a Decrease in 2016, says National Safety Council - NSC News Releases About a third of the increase is from increased miles driven. But I have seen no reports yet looking into the causes of the larger portion, the increased death rate per mile driven.
Higher speeds, and the "entitled to" speeders are part of the higher death toll, I'll wager. Everybody in a rush.
Yikes... A similar rear ender happened to us when we had our new Prius a month and 3 days. It has since been fixed but we were not happy campers about the whole event...
around here, the cops have given up. now they proclaim it's safer for everyone to go the same speed, now matter what speed, so the overwhelming majority seems to prefer 75-85.
That looks bad. You were stopped and you were hit at what speed? I ride as well It's amazing how drivers look right through motorcycles. I have all kinds of strobe lights on the front and rear.
No, the guy hit me while we were at full interstate speed. I was extremely lucky to maintain control of my bike and get to the shoulder. He admitted to being "distracted". It was getting dark and he was in an old black pick-up truck with no lights on. I never saw him. Of course, he did not have insurance... I was only a few miles from my destination that day too. Darn it.
I hope your local drivers don't mistake this regional 'give up' policy as universal. When traveling in other regions, don't try to bring this habit along and impose it elsewhere.
Of course, the entire reason why it's safer for everyone to go the same speed is the utter lack of lane discipline in this country. What we need is police enforcement of "keep right except to pass", for that. Cars in the right lane going faster than your desired speed? Move left, pass them, move right. Not passing anyone? Move right. (In some areas, this may require modification where there's no merging space, although if traffic conditions are such that someone can't merge, they're probably good enough for right lane occupants to move left to let them in.)
i don't know about every part of the country, but between here and florida, and cali, cops seem to have the same attitude. i don't see anyone getting pulled over for speeding, and there are a multitude of opportunities. is washington state the outlier?
Lots of the Midwest - especially Ohio - gets their revenue from speeding tickets. Flyover country, not flythrough country. Mind you, they don't enforce things that are actually more dangerous than speeding, because speeding is easy to prove.
5-10 over is typical, instead of the 20-40 over that's typical in many places. And then there's the speed trap towns, where you'll get ticketed for 1 over. (However, most of those are setting their speed limits in a predatory manner - hiding speed limit changes, that kind of thing.) Of course, you're driving in MA, where... people drive fast, and the speed limit means nothing. I recall doing 75 in a 55 in a blizzard on the Masspike, once, because I didn't feel safe going slower (like, I felt I was at risk of getting rear-ended if I didn't do that, and I did have snow tires) - I was still the slowest car on the road by far. There's a reason why people from outside of MA call MA drivers "massholes". That said, set a meaningful speed limit, and it might get respected. 55 is used a lot of places where the design speed of the road is much higher, after all...
Because it is (was ? the last study is from 1964 because of course the money making machine governement doesn't want safer roads, they want easy money with speed cameras). The best predictor of involvment in accidents is the difference in speed with the average speed. Actually to be correct, 7-8mph above is the safest speed.
Still, if everyone could just slow down to the speed limit, you'd have best of both worlds: everyone going about the same speed, and lower odds of being killed in a crash.
i used to hear the mass driver complaints before i traveled, but it's either a misnomer, or it spread from here, up and down the east cost, and somehow to california.
I keep my Dashcam rolling 24/7 we Prius drivers always get stereotyped as bad drivers when the people that blame us are the problem. I had some jerk honk at me when I was changing lanes in 35 mile zone and I'm going 33-34, I see the car behind me in my rear view mirror and look to my left for clearance and the person behind me honks after I got in front of him to complete my lane change to the left. This jerk must of been going like 40 some mph in 35 zone as he almost rear ended me. #Speeders Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I always give extra room to motorcycles - try to stay at least 5 car lengths behind them if I come upon one. If one stops at a redlight in front of me I let them take off and go a long way before I take off behind them. Motorcycles provide no protection to the driver, so it is our responsibility to give them room. You sure were a lucky guy the day that happened. The picture is unbelievable!!
