from Hacker News

Driving Went Down. Fatalities Went Up. Here's Why

by adlorger on 1/10/22, 12:35 PM with 19 comments

  • by ericmay on 1/10/22, 1:44 PM

    Obviously just an anecdote but reckless driving and road rage got way worse during the pandemic. When the roads were cleared back in March/April 2020 I saw a ton of people driving like maniacs, 100+ MPH in Columbus on I-71 and weaving in and out of traffic, drifting into another lane with no signal, lots of just really bad behavior.

    Idk why but combined with the dirt bike gangs and riots and protests it felt like we were tolerating lawlessness in a way that we hadn’t before. People just realized there weren’t consequences and started doing crazy things.

  • by milkytron on 1/10/22, 7:55 PM

    Personally, I think speed limits should be more heavily enforced.

    There is a reason it is called a limit (in most places), and it is in fact illegal to exceed it. Speeding is also one of the primary factors in determining the severity of a crash.

    If everyone got ticketed every time they exceeded the speed limits (not discussing implementation here, but there are ways that this could be automated), I'm sure our streets and roads would be much safer, and we could also have a meaningful discussion about what the speeds of roads should actually be. Currently, speed limits are nearly arbitrary and officers only enforce them when someone is going 10-15% over it or more.

  • by renewiltord on 1/10/22, 11:36 PM

    Dude, this is a cool hypothesis. I tried to go get the SWITRS data to work with but the page is no longer loading. It includes time, IIRC, but I don't have the data to look at. If you can get a hold of it that would help (assuming the report time has time of crash in it) test your hypothesis. I'll do it on the weekend or something.

  • by vardump on 1/11/22, 2:30 PM

    An idea, not suggesting this to be the actual reason:

    What if this is a manifestation of long COVID cases causing mental degradation? (Or other brain affecting diseases caused by unhealthier lifestyles under lockdown.)