Quote:
Originally Posted by taek
It's up in the US too. People have been driving like idiots since covid, not sure why.
I personally blame the explosion gig drivers like doordash and uber eats. All the accidents around me are from drivers not from the area, staring at their phone and in a rush to get to their next pickup/dropoff.
NYTimes:
“But there has been one major change in driver behavior: the use of smartphones. "Smartphones have become ubiquitous with remarkable speed, overlapping closely with the timeline of rising pedestrian deaths,” Emily, Ben and Josh write.
Smartphones have also become ubiquitous in other countries, of course. But American drivers seem to be addicted to their phones in ways that drivers elsewhere are not. Surveys suggest Americans spend more time on their phones while driving than people do in other countries." |
The most interesting info in that article to me was the next paragraph, where they suggest a partial explanation:
"It also partly reflects vehicle technology. Nearly all cars in the U.S. are automatic transmission, freeing drivers’ hands (or so they may think) to use phones. In Europe, almost 75 percent of cars still have gears that a driver must change manually."