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Re: [Phys-l] Historical trivium

Think about this. NASCAR drivers get up to speeds surpassing 175 mph, yet they experience only 5.4 accidents per race (2009 stats). Now, they are skilled professional drivers, yet they are in maximum competition where getting the edge in a race means inches between cars and winning could be by inches. Compare with New York City driving...(Have you ever driven in Manhattan?) New York wasn't in the top ten for accidents nor for dangerous intersections. They aren't NASCAR drivers. So, what's the reason NJ or NY are not tops for accidents or dangerous intersections? Maybe it's because we were all raised on driving circles and negotiating bad intersections, like people on ranches are raised on horses. Drivers here aren't as foolhardy as you might think. Most of us learned and lost our so-called driving virginity on circle driving, the Turnpike, and all those types of roads which make grown men from the country-side weep.
I still remember losing my driving virginity... it was in the early 60's when my dad let me have the car to pick up a girlfriend in Ventnor from up-town Atlantic City about 10 miles away. The only way to get there was on Pacific Avenue, in the middle of summer, when AC was in its hey-day (b.c.: before casinos), dodging jitneys and buses and cars on a one lane street with no left turn lanes, watching for people who double parked, and all the other most dangerous stuff you could imagine. It becomes a game of inches... when you drive in the average circle or on I-287 or the Parkway at rush hour starting from age 16 up it becomes second nature. Think of the Boss's "Born to Run". Bruce is from Asbury Park and drove Route 9 (highway 9) from an early age;

"In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway american dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway 9,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin out over the line" (Bruce Springsteen)

I may not know how to corral a steer, but I sure can drive the Marlton Circle day or night without ever crashing! I know some people from the sticks who would do anything to avoid that circle!

The accident rate may be lower in the average NJ circle but only when us "skilled" drivers negotiate them. It's when Grandpa in his Regal gets involved that the accidents happen. ;-) Grandpa wouldn't crash in the average general intersection with traffic lights, but put him in a circle and his car becomes a bomb waiting to go off. It's often the SLOWER and TOO FAST drivers who cause the most accidents, not the business person who takes a circle carefully and with experience.

Marty
(drove Thunder Road many times!)

On Nov 21, 2010, at 8:26 PM, brian whatcott wrote:

On 11/21/2010 5:59 PM, Marty Weiss wrote:


I checked again: is this a ratio issue?

Lets see: your claim of 8 million people in 8 thousand square miles of
NJ would be
ONE thousand per square mile.
As against Ketchikan Alaska: 2300 per sq mile. See? :-)
You are comparing a city with a state. apples to oranges.
Brian W
Actually, I am pointing out assertions of lower accidents on modern US
roundabouts than on older US traffic structures. Meanwhile, you
assert that NJ has drivers with poor driving habits, and poor traffic
circle/junction construction plans, yet they experience lower accident
statistics than other places. I don't quite get it. Actually, it
sounds irrational.

Brian W
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