Automobile crashes on rise

**O3H** · July-04-17, 06:55 PM

SEMCOG released their 2016 analysis

Total crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries on the rise
• Traffic crashes in Southeast Michigan increased for the fourth consecutive year.
There were 145,510 total crashes, a five percent increase from 2015.
• Traffic fatalities increased for the sixth consecutive year,
up from 387 in 2015 to 430 in 2016.
The 11 percent increase was the largest increase in fatalities in the past decade.
• Serious injuries increased nine percent in 2016, the first increase in four years.

**Maof** · July-04-17, 07:32 PM

my personal opinion....the speed limit and distracted driving [[texting and/or talking on cell phones).
i don't even like getting on the freeway nowadays.

**Honky Tonk** · July-04-17, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by Maof

my personal opinion....the speed limit and distracted driving [[texting and/or talking on cell phones).
i don't even like getting on the freeway now-a-days.

I think you're right.

http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,4643,7...9172--,00.html

**Maof** · July-04-17, 09:26 PM

I'm not happy that the speed limit keeps on rising. You give 'em a 65 m.p.h. limit and next thing you know, your driving 80 just to keep up.

**Lowell** · July-04-17, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by Maof

my personal opinion....the speed limit and distracted driving [[texting and/or talking on cell phones).
i don't even like getting on the freeway nowadays.

Distracted texting drivers + distracted texting pedestrians.

The blind hitting the blind.

**Honky Tonk** · July-04-17, 09:59 PM

Another link...

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...ain-badly-hurt

**Jimaz** · July-05-17, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

Another link...

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...ain-badly-hurt

Police: Woman Distracted by Phone Hit by Train, Badly Hurt...

Rodriguez, 26, was not wearing headphones, he said, and she is not deaf.

Multiple visual and auditory warnings were all functioning, and the train's conductor climbed onto a walkway on the front of the engine to try to get her attention, he said.

"The conductor was on the front of the train screaming and yelling at her," he said, adding that the engineer inside the train blasted the horn.

"The walk signal actually talks so it was saying, 'Wait, wait, wait.' She's in the crosswalk, and one of the rail arms is actually next to her as she's walking through."

It's frightening that a device can have such an arresting effect on one's mind. It's reminiscent of the plot from Invasion of The Body Snatchers.

**thomprod** · July-05-17, 07:11 AM

Originally Posted by Maof

my personal opinion....the speed limit and distracted driving [[texting and/or talking on cell phones).
i don't even like getting on the freeway nowadays.

Originally Posted by Maof

I'm not happy that the speed limit keeps on rising. You give 'em a 65 m.p.h. limit and next thing you know, your driving 80 just to keep up.

The speed limits on Detroit metro freeways haven't gone up. On the contrary, the 55mph limit on the Lodge causes some faster vehicles to change lanes recklessly, often passing on the right side to avoid the few cars staying at the speed limit.

**Honky Tonk** · July-05-17, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

It's frightening that a device can have such an arresting effect on one's mind. It's reminiscent of the plot from Invasion of The Body Snatchers.

I don't know if you looked @ the other link I posted but:

"According to the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center, there were 7,516 crashes in Michigan involving distracted driving during 2015, resulting in 28 fatalities and 3,472 injuries. This was up from 5,353 crashes in 2014, resulting in 14 fatalities and 2,401 injuries. Of the distracted driving crashes in 2015, a cell phone was involved in 753 crashes, with three fatalities and 251 injuries."

Those are sobering figures to me. [[pun intended) This morning all the way to the freeway entrance, the car in front of me didn't move @ every light when the light turned green. I finally went around him, sure enough, the guy's scratching @ his cell phone. Identical scenario once I got off of the freeway on on to the surface street @ the other end. This is going to go like the gun lobbyists. People are going to be be dying from distracted driving, but they're going to keep encouraging using this technology while driving because people are having fun.

**Bigdd** · July-05-17, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by Maof

I'm not happy that the speed limit keeps on rising. You give 'em a 65 m.p.h. limit and next thing you know, your driving 80 just to keep up.

The freeways were designed, taxed to pay for, engineered and then built to 70 mph. [[It is fraud tor any government to do all that,.. tax us for it,. and then put a lower speed limit on the roads. That and safety was why the NMA was able to get the 55 mph limit repealed.)

The radius of the turns,.. the banking on the interchanges etc are all designed to 70 mph,.. and with car technology from the 1950's. Now days,. a car at 75 or even 80 is safer and handles better than a car in the '50's at 70 mph.

Studies prove that most drivers drive at a reasonable and prudent speed for conditions. In fact,.. the speed limits almost everywhere MUST be set according to traffic engineering studies. [[That's those 2 rubber hoses going across the street. They can tell from the intervals how fast cars are going). Then the law mandates that the speed limit be set by the director based on that data. Actually an average of the middle 84% of that data.

The studies prove that roughly 8% of drivers will go noticeably over that speed,.. and a different 8% will go well under).

So really, the speed limits are democracy in action. Perhaps the only true democracy in the country.

If you take a road that feels safe to most everyone at 75 and post it 55,... they'll drive 75. Raise the speed limit to 70,.. and they'll STILL drive 75.

Much more dangerous with the 55 limit,.. as those with no license,.. no insurance,.. or a lot of points on their license will be driving 55,.. and other cars will be whizzing past them. This is the most dangerous thing on a freeway. When all the cars are going the same speed,... driving is the safest.

I strongly believe that we should force a technology that shuts off all smart phones when they're in cars. Perhaps they could have a car-mode like they have an airplane mode,... that wouldn't allow the screen to even turn on,. and no notices of texts etc. Just phone calls through the cars' stereo. In order to check your texts,. the car would need to be in park with the engine switched off for at least 30 seconds.

**ndavies** · July-05-17, 12:05 PM

Deaths are up due to the number of miles driven also being way up. Raw deaths is not a meaningful statistic. Deaths hit their low point during the middle of the recession. The only stat that matters, The number of deaths per miles driven, continues to fall. Mostly due to safety improvements designed into vehicles.

**Jimaz** · July-05-17, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by ndavies

Deaths are up due to the number of miles driven also being way up. Raw deaths is not a meaningful statistic. Deaths hit their low point during the middle of the recession....

I was going to mention this.

Lately I've noticed it can sometimes take several traffic light cycles just to clear an intersection. Traffic was never that congested during the recession.

How ironic that a good economy can be a curse as well as a blessing.

**Meddle** · July-05-17, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by Bigdd

The freeways were designed, taxed to pay for, engineered and then built to 70 mph. [[It is fraud tor any government to do all that,.. tax us for it,. and then put a lower speed limit on the roads.

Dude like ..... WHAT?

**Sandhouse** · July-06-17, 10:29 AM

If you compare historic graphs of vehicle crashes and any big-scale economic indicator, like GDP, you will see that they always have exactly the same shape.

People who work with traffic statistics knew in advance that crash totals would rise as the economy came back. There is no news in the rising crash totals.

Most of this is attributable to the increase in travel associated with increased economic activity. More miles driven equals more crash exposure.

However, one of the mysteries of traffic statistics is that not only the TOTAL of crashes goes up in good times, but the RATE rises as well. That is, the number of crashes per hundred million vehicle-miles traveled, as it is usually expressed. Michigan's fatality rate per 100 million VMT was below one during the economic depression, but is now headed back toward 1.0. Again, this was foreseen by state and federal safety statisticians.

The cause of this is not understood, but reasonable hypotheses include:
- More jobs held, and more trips made, by people who are only marginally competent at driving.
- More travel by people in new and unfamiliar territory, either for work or vacations.

Some people think psychological factors may be involved, such as an increase in risky behaviors when people have more money in hand, or some other form of irrational exuberance. This is called "risk homeostasis," but I call it fuzzy. But the phenomenon is real.

Many other factors are involved, of course, and my personal prejudice is that cell phones will be exposed as a cause after enough statistics are accumulated. But not the speed limit--those signs have no effect on anything.

**Honky Tonk** · July-06-17, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Sandhouse

If you compare historic graphs of vehicle crashes and any big-scale economic indicator, like GDP, you will see that they always have exactly the same shape.

People who work with traffic statistics knew in advance that crash totals would rise as the economy came back. There is no news in the rising crash totals.

Most of this is attributable to the increase in travel associated with increased economic activity. More miles driven equals more crash exposure.

However, one of the mysteries of traffic statistics is that not only the TOTAL of crashes goes up in good times, but the RATE rises as well. That is, the number of crashes per hundred million vehicle-miles traveled, as it is usually expressed. Michigan's fatality rate per 100 million VMT was below one during the economic depression, but is now headed back toward 1.0. Again, this was foreseen by state and federal safety statisticians.

The cause of this is not understood, but reasonable hypotheses include:
- More jobs held, and more trips made, by people who are only marginally competent at driving.
- More travel by people in new and unfamiliar territory, either for work or vacations.

Some people think psychological factors may be involved, such as an increase in risky behaviors when people have more money in hand, or some other form of irrational exuberance. This is called "risk homeostasis," but I call it fuzzy. But the phenomenon is real.

Many other factors are involved, of course, and my personal prejudice is that cell phones will be exposed as a cause after enough statistics are accumulated. But not the speed limit--those signs have no effect on anything.

All this may be true to some extent, but you can't tell me someone trying to drive, while trying to type a message into a palm-sized TV screen, isn't adding to the increase of traffic accidents and fatalities.

**Bigdd** · July-06-17, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by Sandhouse

However, one of the mysteries of traffic statistics is that not only the TOTAL of crashes goes up in good times, but the RATE rises as well. That is, the number of crashes per hundred million vehicle-miles traveled, as it is usually expressed. Michigan's fatality rate per 100 million VMT was below one during the economic depression, but is now headed back toward 1.0. Again, this was foreseen by state and federal safety statisticians.

The cause of this is not understood, but reasonable hypotheses include:
- More jobs held, and more trips made, by people who are only marginally competent at driving.
- More travel by people in new and unfamiliar territory, either for work or vacations.

Perhaps it's that as the miles driven increases, the roads are more congested, which means tighter gaps between cars [[less room for error).. and more driver frustration / aggressive behavior?

**Meddle** · July-06-17, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

All this may be true to some extent, but you can't tell me someone trying to drive, while trying to type a message into a palm-sized TV screen, isn't adding to the increase of traffic accidents and fatalities.

People bring that up all the time, but is really that much different than anything else? Back in my days on Grand River or the Lodge, or the Jeffries it was common to see people reading the newspaper [[folding and unfolding it), writing something on a clipboard, turning around to the backseat to talk to someone, eating something, finishing getting dressed, changing their kid or any number of other things while driving. As long as people have been driving, they've been doing other things also.

**Honky Tonk** · July-06-17, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

People bring that up all the time, but is really that much different than anything else? Back in my days on Grand River or the Lodge, or the Jeffries it was common to see people reading the newspaper [[folding and unfolding it), writing something on a clipboard, turning around to the backseat to talk to someone, eating something, finishing getting dressed, changing their kid or any number of other things while driving. As long as people have been driving, they've been doing other things also.

You never saw any of those things going on like you see people scratching @ their phones now a days.

**Bigb23** · July-06-17, 03:18 PM

my personal opinion....the speed limit and distracted driving [[texting and/or talking on cell phones).

I can't even walk across a parking lot without almost getting hit by a person on a cell phone driving diagonally through the lot. If I'm hit, I'll sue.

**One Shot** · July-06-17, 03:21 PM

People are just plain rude nowadays. Everyone has the don't mess with me or I'll F you up attitude. Add in texting which is way more prevalent than distractions of yesteryear. Cars that are more complicated to operate-climate/radios. Then people that RELY on the safety features of a car instead of actually learning basic skills. And let's legalize marijuana so that many more people will be roaming the roads stoned!

**O3H** · July-06-17, 04:38 PM

Perhaps some pedestrians could get a bit wise as well.
Black pants and black hoodie crossing where they shouldn't
-- i.e. inbetween areas with streetlights are not present, not at stoplights.

**Lowell** · July-07-17, 07:53 AM

I think just about every new car now has Bluetooth connectivity for their mobile devices, my four year car had it.

This allows hands free calling and texting. It still has a degree of distraction, about the level of daydreaming, but my hands never leave the wheel and my eyes never leave the road.

But if we find distracted driving annoying just wait until auto-piloting becomes wide spread.

**Zacha341** · July-07-17, 08:02 AM

Agreed. People do not realize how invisible they are walking about in the middle of the road dressed like that. Oblivious to cars attempting to go around them.

Only worse is the individuals in wheel chairs and skooters riding in car traffic lanes, completely ignoring the sidewalk ramps provided. Also wearing dark clothing, at night!!!

Originally Posted by O3H

Perhaps some pedestrians could get a bit wise as well. Black pants and black hoodie crossing where they shouldn't
-- i.e. inbetween areas with streetlights are not present, not at stoplights.

**JBMcB** · July-07-17, 08:51 AM

Originally Posted by Maof

I'm not happy that the speed limit keeps on rising. You give 'em a 65 m.p.h. limit and next thing you know, your driving 80 just to keep up.

Just drove up north last weekend up I-75. Back when the speed limit was 70, most people would head up going 75-80, which is perfectly safe on most of the freeway. Now that the speed limit is 75, most people were going.. 75-80.

The increased speed limit isn't so much to let people go faster, than accepting the fact that most people are driving that fast anyway. If some idiot is going 75 at night through a snow storm, they can still get a ticket for reckless driving.

**Maof** · July-07-17, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by JBMcB

Just drove up north last weekend up I-75. Back when the speed limit was 70, most people would head up going 75-80, which is perfectly safe on most of the freeway. Now that the speed limit is 75, most people were going.. 75-80.

The increased speed limit isn't so much to let people go faster, than accepting the fact that most people are driving that fast anyway. If some idiot is going 75 at night through a snow storm, they can still get a ticket for reckless driving.

you're right. since i'm not in the workforce anymore and not having to drive the freeways as often as i did, just not used to it. look at metro parkway. it's now the speed limit as it was on most freeways.