Originally Posted by
CrankyOne
Similarly, if our roads were designed to the same safety standards as most European countries we'd have less than 1/3 of those fatalities so rather than 28,000 it'd be about 8,000 so 20,000 lives saved.
If U.S. traffic engineers designed our roads as well as engineers in Europe then of the 38,000 people killed last year about 29,000 would still be alive today. Of the 378,000 people killed over the past 10 years, about 276,000 would still be alive today.
Or put another way, U.S. traffic engineers are responsible for the deaths of 29,000 people last year due to their negligent designs.
As I understand it, U.S. limited access highways and interstates are designed so that an 85th percentile driver feels comfortable and in control at 80mph. This has been the case for decades. I've driven cross country many times in my younger years but have not owned a car for decades. When I drove my wife and I to Oregon which is our home now, I had not driven any vehicle for over five years. I drove a loaded 16' Penske rental truck from NYC to Portland, OR in five days in about every kind of road and weather condition there is. Safely. European Civil Engineers are assisted by the high social intelligence of European drivers in making their roads so safe!!! Just this week at church a mother was expressing thanks that her son survived an accident that crushed his car so badly that he had to be 'extracted' from it! The other driver "fell asleep". It is really a stretch to blame America's road infrastructure for what is actually a massive failure in inculcating a culture of good judgement, skills improvement, and civility in the roadgoing public.