Why so many accidents on 75? (Houston, Dallas: to live, dangerous, stats)

[JimBaker488]

Originally Posted by TX75007

This.

I was behind a gasoline hauler on Marsh yesterday and a man in a small car was texting and driving erratically as he passed me. He drifted over into the gas hauler and bounced off the rear tires on the trailer and spun out.

I let the responding officer know what I saw.

It's truly amazing how some people are so indifferent to the risks of actually potentially losing their lives when driving carelessly/recklessly in little cars while moving among much larger traffic on the roads/freeways ?

[aggie972]

This is why I'm so excited for self driving cars. People are just so awful at driving, and in addition to the risk of dying, you risk losing money, and having to deal with the stressful bureaucracy at the insurance companies. It just makes the whole experience annoying.

[TheOverdog]

It seems like 75 gets a lot of accidents because DFW as a whole has a lot of highways and roadways attributable to its sprawl:
Network Length: 57,202 miles
Network Highways:1,634 miles
Non-highways: 55,568 miles
Vehicle Miles Travelled in 2013: 28,529,608

It has more highways and more roadway miles total than LA; the only metro that comes close in road mileage is NYC. DFW is about 2-5X of most US metro areas greater than 800k population in terms of network length.

It's also one top 10 or so metros for vehicle miles travelled. As a result of this many miles available, the congestion isn't particularly bad, but you spend a lot of time driving (increase in accidents #1), and mostly driving relatively fast (increase in accidents #2).

Compare for yourself with the 2014 TomTom Traffic report:
http://www.google.com/url?url=http:/...Wj2PLgWD9SmF1Q

[mSooner]

I use 75 a lot, but there is always trouble around exits 1-3. Way too many lane changes necessary to get to your desired route, plus oncoming traffic makes this area ripe for accidents.

Very true.

[Texas Minded]

Originally Posted by TX75007

This.

I was behind a gasoline hauler on Marsh yesterday and a man in a small car was texting and driving erratically as he passed me. He drifted over into the gas hauler and bounced off the rear tires on the trailer and spun out.

I let the responding officer know what I saw.

I wish I could have heard if the guy lied to the cops. So many here swerve in and out of their lanes regularly. Must be texting. There can't possibly be that many folks drunk in the daytime.

[aznkobee]

Originally Posted by JimBaker488

It's truly amazing how some people are so indifferent to the risks of actually potentially losing their lives when driving carelessly/recklessly in little cars while moving among much larger traffic on the roads/freeways ?

The invention of cars is so recent in human history so unfortunately people with retarded driving gene haven't all died out yet... but someday they will...

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by Texas Minded

I wish I could have heard if the guy lied to the cops. So many here swerve in and out of their lanes regularly. Must be texting. There can't possibly be that many folks drunk in the daytime.

Saw a woman on the toll road going about 40 mph, swerving around. She was texting with her right hand and steering with her left, holding a cigarette. Seriously?

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by TXNGL

Saw a woman on the toll road going about 40 mph, swerving around. She was texting with her right hand and steering with her left, holding a cigarette. Seriously?

Ugh, people like that make me sick.

[SVTRay]

Originally Posted by JoeSiczpak

>Does anyone have any insight as to why this is the case?

ATT, Verizon, Sprint all own majority holdings in auto body and paint shops.

HaHaHaHa lol

[Transplanted99]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

It seems like 75 gets a lot of accidents because DFW as a whole has a lot of highways and roadways attributable to its sprawl:
Network Length: 57,202 miles
Network Highways:1,634 miles
Non-highways: 55,568 miles
Vehicle Miles Travelled in 2013: 28,529,608

It has more highways and more roadway miles total than LA; the only metro that comes close in road mileage is NYC. DFW is about 2-5X of most US metro areas greater than 800k population in terms of network length.

It's also one top 10 or so metros for vehicle miles travelled. As a result of this many miles available, the congestion isn't particularly bad, but you spend a lot of time driving (increase in accidents #1), and mostly driving relatively fast (increase in accidents #2).

Compare for yourself with the 2014 TomTom Traffic report:
http://www.google.com/url?url=http:/...Wj2PLgWD9SmF1Q

Thanks for the link. Very interesting to see how DFW compares to other cities worldwide! DFW fares rather well, even with many much smaller cities.

I would like to see stats on accidents per mile traveled to get a real sense of apples to apples proportion before I could say the answer to the OP's question is related to the number of miles of roadway.

I have my beefs about DFW driving (particularly the left lane bandits), but I've not found it particularly worse than in other US cities. Only one thing I notice more of in DFW is on the wide boulevards, people frequently like to make wide turns (illegal btw, it is supposed to be lane to lane - e.g. right lane to right most lane; left lane to left most lane). It gets particularly egregious when they cut across three lanes on their turn, preventing you from turning.