Originally Posted by wahoonc
I will agree with the basics of the study. I live in what used to be a rural area, narrow 2 lane roads, no shoulders, and the occasional tractor tooling down the road. In the past 8 years is has become suburbia
there is a caution light about a mile from the house. There used to be an accident there about every other month 8 years ago, now it is more like once a week. I used to be able to pull out of our road without looking (well I could have if I wanted to) now I usually have to wait for 15-20 cars to go by first. Many of the people are driving at well over the posted speed limit of 45 mph. Another thing that may come into play is the lack of available law enforcement in a given area. Typically a suburban area that is non incorporated will be patrolled by a county enforcement agency, with fewer deputies per capita than an urban area police force. Because of this more speeding can and will occur, along with the other related issues of minimal police coverage.
Aaron
One of the issues can also be, that it takes time and money to hire and train police officers, as the population is more spread out, you need more officers per 1,000 people then an older compact city. For example suppose you have two officers in a patrol car, and they can patrol an area of 25 square miles in a shift, some of the suburban areas might have 500 people in that area, a city might have 50,000. Now it costs $40,000 per officer per year, and you need at least 8, total cost of $320,000 add another $30,000 for the patrol car, fuel, maintenance, etc, don't forget it operates 7/24/365. Total cost about $350,000 it costs the city dwellers $7 per year, each to keep that patrol going, it costs the suburbanites $700 per year. In order to cut costs, they might run fewer officers, and while those officers are dealing with other issues, soccer moms in SUVs yapping on cell phones are mowing down their neighbours.....