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Posted: 15 Jun 2006, 01:14
by pyry
you guys dont know how to drive. its something like 3-7 per thousand in finland. under 150 people die anually in traffic, out of 5.2 million

Posted: 15 Jun 2006, 08:46
by Ciro Pabón
pyry wrote:you guys dont know how to drive. its something like 3-7 per thousand in finland. under 150 people die anually in traffic, out of 5.2 million
pyry, this does not help a bit. Even if I am aware that Finland has made an excellent work in recent years about road safety, Finland drivers (sorry to say it like that, but I want to use the strongest possible words) are as stupid or smart as anybody. Passport does not make you immune to death, my man, even if I want to concede the high cultural level and social responsability of scandinavians. This kind of thinking is what takes you to the rates I mentioned for young drivers.

European Union 2002. Source: CARE (Community Road Accident Database).

Total deaths in EU, 2002: 38.637
Total seriously injured: 221.656
Total slightly injured: 1'129.395
Fatality rates by country and by billion passenger-km:

Image

The main difference between national accident rates is the quality of the infrastructure, and, to certain level, your culture, not your nationality. This, and better cars is the force behind the slow decrease in accidents over the years.

The idea that somehow you drive better than anybody is what can really kill you, or worse, your friends, or worse yet, somebody else's mother, father, daughter or son.

I have personally raised enough broken bodies from wreckages, when I worked for road maintenance, while some stupid driver tumbled around completely drunk, to have some tolerance or words of encourage to "super-drivers".

I apologize to pyry in advance, because such a short and probably innocent observation as the one he gave maybe does not deserve such a strong response on my part. I hope this counts as "reilu meininki".

Car and road engineers have taken more than lightly this heavy social responsability. Some of you know that I like to make lame jokes on almost anything, but I am not smiling right now.

Posted: 15 Jun 2006, 22:12
by dumrick
Sadly, that "P" in Ciro's graph stands for "Portugal"...

I agree partly with Ciro and partly with pyry, quality of the infrastructure is paramount, but education is also very important...

Posted: 15 Jun 2006, 23:15
by Monstrobolaxa
dumrick wrote:Sadly, that "P" in Ciro's graph stands for "Portugal"...
We're (Portugal) so good in motor vehicle acidents that it's almost a regulated sport! :lol:

Posted: 15 Jun 2006, 23:31
by flynfrog
Monstrobolaxa wrote:
dumrick wrote:Sadly, that "P" in Ciro's graph stands for "Portugal"...
We're (Portugal) so good in motor vehicle acidents that it's almost a regulated sport! :lol:
thats possibly the funniest thing ive read all day :P :lol:

Posted: 16 Jun 2006, 00:14
by zac510
Monstrobolaxa wrote:We're (Portugal) so good in motor vehicle acidents that it's almost a regulated sport! :lol:
As a daily cyclist, I'm quite scared!

Surprised Italy is so low.. I've heard some stories from drivers in that country.. but then again that may be just what this whole thread is about (stereotypes).

Posted: 16 Jun 2006, 07:02
by pyry
one reason would probably our pretty extensive drifers license program, which is much stricter than in central europe. another factor is that we have snow and ice in the winter(and lots), which on one hand may result in a small accident increase but also gives you quite an edge in the summer in unexpected circumstances. also the accidents are mostly ditchings(where the snow protects the vehicle) or small mishaps at small speeds, which sheldom result in any personal or materialistic damage.

also id say that women drive just as much. the bottom line is that based on research and personal experiences, id say that women are more prone to collide(parking for instance) but men do it "properly" when they do.

Posted: 17 Jun 2006, 11:05
by RH1300S
I just read that in Bogotá a survey reports that 1:20 men have had an accident while looking at women in the street 8)

Posted: 17 Jun 2006, 12:19
by manchild
RH1300S wrote:I just read that in Bogotá a survey reports that 1:20 men have had an accident while looking at women in the street 8)
Now add to that men that were looking at men in the street and you'll get even worse score for men :lol:

Posted: 17 Jun 2006, 14:19
by RH1300S
Ooohhhhhhhhh Captain :oops:

Posted: 18 Jun 2006, 04:52
by Ciro Pabón
RH1300S wrote:I just read that in Bogotá a survey reports that 1:20 men have had an accident while looking at women in the street 8)
Yes, me too. This is one of my crazy colleagues in action. 8) Yesterday, I was going to post something really long about what we have done to reduce Bogotá's rate to Finland levels, but I guess it is less interesting.

You have to understand that in an equatorial country women dress diferently all year round. :wink:

The figure is 1:20 accidents, not 1:20 men. You could take in account that nowadays we cannot use a cell phone on a car without a "hands free" attachmet, we cannot even smoke in private cars without getting a ticket and (as the article says) we do not eat while driving, so ¿what else can distract us?

Before Principessa complains, I'd guess 1:40 could be women looking men, you chauvinst pig! :lol: ... and as MC says, 1:400 (I am also guessing here we should have a 5% "alternative" population) could be men looking men or (Manchild forgets) women looking women.

Finally, as the article explains, the older we get, the more we argue with passengers and the less we look for chicks... these "old grumpy" accidents are included under the "distraction of driver" cause.

Posted: 18 Jun 2006, 08:13
by manchild
Ciro, don't forget men looking men & woman and woman looking woman & men :lol:

BTW, "alternative" population figures used in statistics go from 10 to 15%

Posted: 18 Jun 2006, 20:00
by Tom
Heck, i even look at chicks while I'm racing :D

(I'm so lonely :cry: )

Posted: 19 Jun 2006, 00:09
by Principessa
zac510 wrote:Surprised Italy is so low.. I've heard some stories from drivers in that country.. but then again that may be just what this whole thread is about (stereotypes).
I've been in Italy with an exchange programme and I stayed with an Italian family that lived only 15km out of Rome...I have to say it, the Italians are mad when they are driving. Not only by car but also by vespa. I drove on a vespa with an Italian boy who was part of the exchange programme and we were driving downhill and in a hairpin he drove 75km/h with his vespa. I was terrified sitting behind him.

Back to the woman driving thing...I really don't think that they drive that bad. There are a few and yes parking is terrible for most woman (including me...especially on a bad day and being nervous as Tomba is sitting next to me :oops: ) but I don't think that woman cause more accidents. Woman are more carefull when they are driving, men intend to drive faster and more reckless than woman. That is only my opinion. But as someone said before it has to do with stereotypes. :wink:

Posted: 19 Jun 2006, 10:21
by kilcoo316
Principessa wrote:
zac510 wrote:Woman are more careful when they are driving, men tend to drive faster and more reckless than woman.
That, I think we could all agree with.