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Source of the chart - Plane vs. car safety: America has the world's safest air travel but is so bad at car safety - Vox

Three tweet thread...

A key reason is Americans love BIG HEAVY vehicles. "The average weight of a new vehicle sold in the United States last year was a whopping 4,329 pounds." You get hit by one of these monsters as a pedestrian, cyclist, you die.

Nitter

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[-] EnsignRedshirt@hexbear.net 38 points 1 year ago

I am flabbergasted by the gap between Canada and the US. Canada is only marginally less carbrained than the US, there must be something really fucked happening with urban planning or enforcement or something for there to be that kind of difference.

[-] sexywheat@hexbear.net 15 points 1 year ago

That was my first thought too. I reckon maybe we have fewer death machine pickups, but nope, Ford F series and other chudmobiles also happen to be the top selling vehicles here too what

I would hunch it may have something to do with a generally less aggressive population, more respect for speed limits, probably more reasonable speed limits overall, but I'm just spit-balling here because the USA fatality rate is almost three times higher. What the fuck? That is a massive difference.

I asked ChatGPT and it gave a little more context, but I'm not quite satisfied with that lacklustre explanation tbh.

[-] danisth@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago

I think it has to do with the percent of the population that has access to good (and well used) rapid transit. 30% of the Canadian population lives in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, all with decent transit by NA standards. In the US I suspect it’s much lower.

[-] Balefirex@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Here's a pic I took when visiting the US from Canada

[-] famousringo@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Oh, wow, I’m used to seeing these “stay away from big daddy car” signs on bike trails.

[-] HeckingShepherd@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

I think speed limits are a little lower on average. Definitely surprised at the size of the difference as well though

[-] GaveUp@hexbear.net 20 points 1 year ago

The limits are pretty similar

As a Canadian living in America, I definitely feel like Americans are just way more aggressive and individualist in general which carries over to their driving

[-] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's lots of things I seen on reddit that I'm like "oh what weird distinctly reddit pathology", then I'll talk to my friends who moved to the States and be like "oh so americans are really like that".

[-] CoderKat@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I thought that was odd, too. I've driven in both countries and they're very similar. Public transit is poor or unavailable for many outside of city cores and there's mad suburban sprawl. And the most aggressive drivers I've seen would actually be in Montreal.

I wonder if it could be cultural differences overall? Or maybe how much of Canada's population is so concentrated in just a couple of cities? Apart from the 401, most Canadian highways didn't feel nearly as backed as American ones, too. I've driven around San Francisco and Atlanta and they were both super packed highways with exit ramps constantly backed up for hundreds of meters. In Canada, the 401 is really the only highway I see that. As bad as inner city traffic can get, that's much lower speed.

But yeah, it's really hard to think of actual differences between the two. While the two countries do have overall cultural differences, I did not perceive a huge difference in driver selfishness or speeding. Contrary to internet memes, Canadians are usually very selfish drivers, too. Canada also is obsessed with oversized trucks. Ontario is the epitome of "just one more lane will fix all our problems" and train service is constantly underfunded (though I guess at least we do have the Go trains and buses, which seems to be more than can be said about many US metro areas).

[-] DroneRights@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago

Canadians can afford an ambulance

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 37 points 1 year ago

The most popular car in Europe vs the most popular car in the US

[-] ikiru@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago

I feel like that truck looks way smaller than most I see in the US.

[-] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 year ago

That's because it's a stock F150...

They go up F250, F350..up to at least F650 (and that's just Ford!)

Plus any yahoo can buy a lift kit off the internet and literally jack up the absurdity.

[-] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago

Are they making a baby car

[-] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago

BUILD TRAINS MOTHERFUCKERS

[-] GaveUp@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm pretty sure air safety is only safest in America because most of the foreign commercial airliners that have crashed are probably due to the ClA

[-] FnordPrefect@hexbear.net 15 points 1 year ago

frothingfash "Hell yeah they do! Why do you think I have this 250 pound "brush guard" and my bumper raised to eye level for driving around in my suburb?"

[-] Antiwork@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

13 per 100k really is a ridiculous number

[-] SaniFlush@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

The hell is going on in Turkey

[-] fuzzy@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

holy shit i love cars now

[-] DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 year ago

I think this also has to due with the US healthcare system. I'd imagine a lot of people over there flat out couldn't afford to be saved after a car crash.

this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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