Why so many fatal car wrecks? (Dallas, San Antonio: restaurant, safety, moving)

[Trainwreck20]

The roads in Texas are engineered using the same standards as anywhere else with similar weather conditions - Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona generally uses the same set of asphalts to pave the roads. What does happen occasionally, during periods of drought, is that oils from automobiles build up on the road, and during the beginning of a rain, or for a longer period during a light rain, there is a sheen of oil on the surface. I would expect that this would be similar in AZ, but I don't have any personal experience there.

[OREGONRAIN]

Well here is my feelings on it, I will probably be told to stay on the Oregon forum,but Im here anyway. Accidents, pretty simple actually, to relive some of them anyway. Austin, fastgowing metro area, state capitol, large university, large number of newcomers moving in from elsewhere equals too many people on the roads, and a great many being new are not completely familiar with their surrounds. Combine all of that with just about the entire sunbelt regions, completely car dependent and show little if any interest in ever having public transit or for that matter contributing to fix the problem, Then car accidents is the logical conclusion. No place including Austin can expect to move however many thousands year after year in and around areas from outlying suburbs to downtowns etc and expect everyone to do it in a car, it doesn't make sense and doesn't work, more accidents and more needless deaths from these wrecks. So yes bad drivers cause accidents, too many people from all the crossections of metro austin trying to move around exclusively in a car, with no other options or interest in any are the main reason for all the traffic accidents in the region.

[twange]

Hey Oregonrain,

There is some truth to what you said, but c'mon...you do come across as a wee bit smug I know that Portland has a fantastic streetcar system but the town isn't perfect. When I was there, I was suprised at how many people still drove around the city when the streetcars are so convenient(I don't know if you live in Portland, I'm just using this as an example). I agree, public transportation is the answer to many of the issues facing most cities. Nationwide. I would be careful about generalizing all sunbelt cities as blind, ignorant, car-crazy oil guzzlers. There does seem to be folks in Austin who realize this, so let's see what happens in the near future. Check out this link:

http://austinforum.8.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=130

p.s. I don't live in Austin yet, so I am not a "homer".

[KewGee]

I don't know what the stats are in Austin but for years, Texas led the nation in drunk driving fatalities. I believe this state only trails by a tad now with CA leading even though CA is much more populated than Texas with approximately 13 million more people.

[love roses]

Also unlicensed drivers.

[Catherinelady]

The signage here is awful compared to other states. I have been here for two weeks and I have never seen such horrible placement of signs for roadways. Its confusing for a lot of people and I, myself have narrowly avoided getting into collisions because of this reason.

[categ]

Catherinelady - I agree. I've just started driving here after relocating from the UK. I've found driving here a lot more difficult than anticipated incl the poor signage! Some drivers are fairly rude & aggressive too esp jumping red lights & driving too close.

Although I've been driving for 20 years in the UK I'm going to have some lessons here in Austin, so that I feel safer driving.

[karnival96]

I think many drivers here must be colorblind, because I have seen at least 3 cars run red lights (well after the light turned red) in the past week. There also seem to be many impatient, impulsive, wreckless young people on the roads who always seem to be in a hurry to get where ever they are going.

[Trainwreck20]

Driving to work yesterday, I watched several completely idiotic drivers and it got me to thinking....maybe I should start a website - "twit of the day". I would install a webcam in my car and record my drive to work each day. I am almost guaranteed to catch a completely 'road raged' driver or a complete fool driving bad enough to rage everyone else. Then I could post a clip of them, so everyone would get to enjoy . I could take submissions for entries, too.... I suppose I could even market the equipment...hmmmm....

On the other hand, I guess most people get to see the bad drivers first hand, so maybe not as much demand as I think .

[jwb123]

You never know TW, people read blogs about anything! You could be the next PerezHilton of Austin.

I think many drivers here must be colorblind, because I have seen at least 3 cars run red lights (well after the light turned red) in the past week.

No, they just don't want to get caught in the 10 minute long red, so they floor it! They figure a ticket outweights sitting there forever waiting for it to turn!