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The upside of high gas prices is fewer traffic deaths
I've noticed trucks going a lot slower on I-94 in Wisconsin. Nationwide there's a 9% drop in motor vehicle deaths through May compared with the first five months of 2007, including a drop of 18% in March and 14% in April. (AP/Wisconsin State Journal)
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July 23, 2008 | Permalink
Comments
Fewer cars on the road, fewer people driving long distances....fewer accidents....who woulda figured??
Posted by: cherie | Jul 23, 2008 7:02:45 AM
That's because only people who drive like a$$holes hate the high cost of gas-o-hol.
Posted by: sometimesilie | Jul 23, 2008 7:04:04 AM
With 42,000 hiway deaths per year, we are at greater risk than when I was in the jungles of 'Nam in 1969.
42,000 per year is 115 deaths per day. If a plane crashed and killed 115 people every day, it would be big news. Sometimes I think we turn a blind eye to that of which we fear.
Posted by: Rock Marine | Jul 23, 2008 7:16:34 AM
I've certainly noticed a throttle back on I-84, and the LIE, I-95
Trucking companies have been instructing drivers to maintain speeds specific to fuel efficiency.
Still, plenty of wackadoos on the road. A few months ago some drunk lady person ended up in her car upside down on the neighbors yard at 2 am having wiped out a tree and fence post in mine.
Yesterday in the middle of the afternoon, some bozo managed to do almost exactly the same thing, coming from the other direction.
I am now considering a concrete rebar re-enforced rock wall for the frontage of my house. Possibly my neighbor might like to go in on it wth me as it is rather tiresome cleaning assorted car parts out of your yard.
Posted by: nellagain | Jul 23, 2008 7:16:53 AM
Not that it's a scientific survey or anything, but at the fire department we're down almost 45% on traffic accident calls from this time last year.
Posted by: Drake Timbershaft | Jul 23, 2008 7:18:30 AM
Rock,
That particular paradox has long been a tripping point in Risk Assessment and Risk Management. Papers, books, meetings have been devoted to it. Some High Class Heavy Duty Thinkers have put in serious cogitation about WHY people do not understand Risk with respect to their daily lives. [I am soooooo not kidding about this, part of my salary is underwritten by IRMI)
And so far all we got is "People are dumber than dirt" or to quote Tommy Lee Jones from MIB
"A person is smart; people are dumb, panicky, and dangerous."
Posted by: nellagain | Jul 23, 2008 7:25:48 AM
This is great news, but I think it may have to do with demographics too....I was in Wash DC this weekend and all the BMW drivers (seems BMW's are more common than Chevy Cobalts there) were still driving on the highways surrounding the area like flaming asshats. I was cruising at 75 just to not get run off the road and was being passed aggressively on a regular basis. People that drive $50,000 cars don't worry too much about getting a mile per gallon more out of their car. but hey, still good news.
Posted by: jj | Jul 23, 2008 7:28:30 AM
Nell, I know that everyday when I'm on the freeway, I have more fear than when I was in combat. The other drivers frighten the hell out of me.
Posted by: Rock Marine | Jul 23, 2008 7:32:17 AM
If there were as many planes in the sky flying similar routes as we have cars on the road ways...we'd have more plane "accidents". Its just the nature of the beast. Soon cars will navigate themselves and the rate of accidents will be seriously decreased...
Posted by: cherie | Jul 23, 2008 7:33:03 AM
Don't count on cars navigating themselves in your lifetime. Believing that is like a kid in a coonskin cap back in the 50s believing he'd grow up to a world of flying cars.
Posted by: Nah! | Jul 23, 2008 7:35:23 AM
FYI, part of the reason DC is full of crazy drivers is that it's full of tourists making left turns from the right lane and so on. Not that we don't have our own native idiots, we do. In my particular neighborhood, stop signs are apparently just a suggestion (and I know tourists are not visiting my particular neighborhood).
Posted by: elchampino | Jul 23, 2008 7:36:21 AM
KEEPS THE IDIOTS OFF THE ROAD WHO ARE JUST RUNNING AROUND WITH NO REASON FOR SURE.
Posted by: | Jul 23, 2008 7:37:49 AM
elchampino, apparently a lot of people that live in DC vacation there too since most of the asshats I saw driving like they were going to win a $1,000,000 by getting to their destination first had DC plates!
Posted by: jj | Jul 23, 2008 7:42:49 AM
Sweet. Throw in the out-of-towners who drive the wrong way down one way streets and you've got the whole picture :)
Posted by: elchampino | Jul 23, 2008 7:47:09 AM
Have to agree with Rock Marine. Also been in very touchy situations, and never felt as fearful as driving on the Beltway.
When travel is a must, I'll go days out of my way to avoid that string of northeastern cities, or plan the trip for night driving.
Posted by: thomas | Jul 23, 2008 7:56:53 AM
Now that, I cannot argue with. The Beltway is insane, and the posted speed limit is a joke everyone but Maryland State Troopers seem to be in on.
Posted by: elchampino | Jul 23, 2008 8:05:05 AM
Driving the Beltway has always been a bit of a horrorshow. Champ, your description is ever so precise.
Ummm and I'm sorry I drove the wrong way on a street for 15 minutes the last time I was there. Hope it wasn't too much of an inconvenience.
Posted by: nellagain | Jul 23, 2008 8:08:24 AM
"Chezarae Dickson, 23, of Madison, said she makes efforts to use cruise control on highways and avoids traveling to her parents' home in Wausau."
I think this has less to do with gas prices and more to do with not wanting to see her folks...
Posted by: Reno | Jul 23, 2008 9:02:21 AM
IDIOTS! It is summer driveing with no ice, freezing rain or snow vs winter and earlie spring diving with it all. ANYONE who says it has anythng to do with gas prices is a complete IDIOT!!!
Posted by: Bo | Jul 23, 2008 9:07:10 AM
I think they are comparing month to month, Bo (i.e. "Wisconsin traffic deaths have been falling each month since October 2007, compared to the same month the previous year.")
Posted by: elchampino | Jul 23, 2008 9:13:14 AM
Well, the high gas prices have certainly cut deeply into the ranks of the Motor Homeless (those people who drive anywhere to get away from themselves.)
I think that higher gasoline prices might have pushed more people towards the information highway; IE the Internet. Expect a bit more posts containing damn near no content.
Like the one above; Heh.
Posted by: Icecycle | Jul 23, 2008 9:20:22 AM
Clever. Heh.
Posted by: thomas | Jul 23, 2008 9:29:29 AM
Month to month is not what it says, it is comparing the first 5 month to th net 2 1/2. Evevn if they were not, you cannot get data like this without a long term study, i know they say they arnot tying, ut someone will use this as fact when it is NOT.
Posted by: Bo | Jul 23, 2008 9:42:20 AM
Bo, settle down and read for a minute. "Wisconsin traffic deaths have been falling each month since October 2007, compared to the same month the previous year. Last month, 51 people died in Wisconsin crashes, making it the second-safest June since World War II, the DOT said. As of Monday, 291 people had died in Wisconsin crashes this year, compared to 392 fatalities at this point a year ago, according to DOT reports." Do you get it now?
Posted by: Reno | Jul 23, 2008 9:57:24 AM
Bo: The statistical claims made in this article are perfectly fine. You may not have noticed it but the writer did a good job of noting other possible contributions to decline in accident rates.
"States also cite other factors for the decline, such as police stepping up their pursuit of speeders and drunken drivers, as well as better teen-licensing programs, safer vehicles and winter weather that kept many drivers at home."
Safer vehicles are certainly making a difference (GO CRUMPLE ZONES! A small round of applause for the engineers!); as is the aging out of less safe vehicles. But the claim about gas prices and fewer accidents is historically well-supported and the methodology used here is not flawed in any significant way. Neither is the methodology of the DOT/NHSTA who has been watching this sort of thing since before you were a twinkle in your mamma's eye.
Yup a longtitudinal study would have sturdier results. Um... exactly how long are you willing to have gas at $4/ gallon and higher so we can gather good data? {A rhetorical question as I've a good many years left in me and do not expect to ever see gas prices below $5 a gallon after November of this year)
Posted by: nellagain | Jul 23, 2008 10:23:35 AM
