On Mar 19, 11:20=A0am, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> Peter Wieck wrote:
> > Accordingly, Americans who do not live in the very few cities where
> > personal cars are truly a luxury (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia
> > (barely), Wa****ngton DC and a handful of others) drive A LOT.
> > Typically, I drive ~24,000 miles a year (38,400km), of which 2/3 is
> > business. My wife drives about 10,000 (16,000km) miles per year, very
> > little on business. And by US standards we are very conservative in
> > our habits.
>
> > So, if accidents are a function of being in harm's way, and measured
> > in per-mile-driven rather than per-capita, I would posit that the US
> > accident rate is rather low by comparison. Right now, per NHTSA (as of
> > 2002) fatalities + re****table injuries are running under 2/100,000
> > (160,000km) miles driven and trending down. Similarly in England, but
> > their rate (also 2002) is just over 2, close-but-below France and so
> > forth. Most of the rest of the world is several orders-of-magnitude
> > higher.
>
> > Figures don't lie, but liars sure can figure.
>
> So, if you're typical, your mileage is around 1.5 times the UK average.
>
> Yet, UK road deaths per head of population are around one THIRD the US
rat=
e.
>
> How do you account for this apparent mismatch. Does the **average** US
dri=
ver cover
> 35,000 mi annually ?
>
> Graham- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Do some checking.
The average UK vehicle (as of 2002) travels ~12,000 miles annually.
This compares with the American average of just over 12,000 miles
annually.
Keep in mind that nearly every American between age 16 and death owns
a car if not several, and irrespective of income. Most of those cars
don't go far. Some go exceedingly far. We own three vehicles. All
three of them (including my business miles) travel about 40,000 miles
per year. Pull out my business miles (16,000 miles) and that comes to
about 8000 per vehicle. The reality is 8, 10, and 6. But my risk is
elevated as I am driving at 2 x the national average.
As the Greyhound Bus driver answered when asked at his 2,000,000
accident-free miles ceremony how he did it: Drive like the other guy's
crazy. Excellent advice.
Just check deaths + serious injuries per mile driven and see that they
compare nearly exactly, or within 1/100,000 throughout the North
American and Western Europe. Accidents per head are not an accurate
measure. I would bet that a significant segment of the British
population simply does not own a motor-vehicle. That greatly skews the
figures if based only on a head count.
Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA
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