Open Source Mapping Software Shows Every Traffic Death On Earth 322
cartechboy writes "Traffic deaths are set to outpace AIDS/HIV and malaria in the developing world, so the UN is trying to change that perception. This shocking open source, interactive map of crash data from the Pulitzer Center ought to help. It's grisly, but very informative. The mapping was produced by Pulitzer Center journalists using open source mapping technology from Mapbox. Compare the U.S. fatality rate of 11.4 per 100,000 to that of other nations, like the Dominican Republic, Iran, and Thailand and see how people were traveling when when killed (car, bicycle, etc)."
Only one thing to do! (Score:5, Insightful)
US Deaths caused by illicit drug overdose - ~5,000 per year
WAR ON DRUGS!!!!
US Deaths caused by terrorists - 3000, twelve years ago
WAR ON TERROR!!!!
US Deaths caused by hacking - 1 (and that one by "friendly fire", sorry Aaron Schwartz)
WAR ON HACKING!!!!
US Deaths caused by automobile accidents - 30,000 per year
umm...
We'll get back to you on that.
(admittedly not a fair or entirely accurate comparison... but it does say something about America's priorities.)
Re:Only one thing to do! (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing can be done, no more trillions to blow or civil liberties to obliterate.
Re:Only one thing to do! (Score:4, Insightful)
US deaths cased by guns in 2010: ~30,000.
And yet not only do idiot gun control opponents not think this is a problem, they make WAR ON GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION!!! Ludicrous.
Re:Only one thing to do! (Score:4, Insightful)
So you're saying that the US has done nothing to improve traffic safety? No cell phone or texting laws, no crackdowns on DWI, no improvements to cars or roads? Traffic fatalitiies (per mile driven) have decreased almost every year for the last 90 years. Your post says absolutely NOTHING about 'America's priorities'.
Re:100,000? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is there any good reason that this stat is 11.4 out of 100,000 instead of 1.14 out of 10,000 or say a normal percentage?
Yes. If they make it "out of 10,000" then for many countries it would be less than one. Who cares if 0.72 person dies? If they make it a million, then it will be dozens to hundreds, and few people have emotional attachments to that many people. But if they use "per 100,000", the number of deaths will be about the same as the number of family members and close friends that a normal person would have.
Re:Dominican Republic, Iran and Thailand stats (Score:5, Insightful)
Really?
First, a 10-fold difference is quite important. Second, I would like to see the average speed of motorized traffic in these countries.
Fatality rate is 41.7 per 100000 in DR and ~4 in Germany. Now my guess is that should people try to drive in the DR as fast as it is customary in Germany, that 41.7 rate would go much higher...
You can say the same about guns (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't say the same about guns.
Millions upon millions of guns are sold legally each year. Between hunting and range shooting you can in fact say that the OVERWHELMING majority of guns are used as safe, useful, non-criminal tools.
Only 31k people died from gun injuries in the U.S. in 2011 - of those many were criminals shot, and 19k were suicides! Again, millions of guns sold, a tiny number of deaths, especially if you compare number of deaths per total number of guns to number of deaths per total cars...
Re:Disappointing (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I have to agree. I was expecting something elaborate. This could have been just as useful as a shared Google doc spreadsheet of data.
Re:Only one thing to do! (Score:2, Insightful)
Without getting into whether the war on drugs is justified, it's worth pointing out that a fraction of those 34,677 automobile accident deaths are due to illicit drug use. How much is difficult to say since the stats I was able to find last time I looked simply classified those accidents as caused by "driving under the influence" without distinguishing between alcohol and controlled substances. For reference, alcohol alone is responsible for about a third of the automobile accident fatalities. So you should expect a problem on a similar scale of illicit drugs were legalized. (Not saying this is justification for the war on drugs, just pointing out that it's a factor you need to consider.)
And for the people trying to make this a gun control issue, of the 31,718 firearm-caused deaths in 2011, [cdc.gov] (p18-19) 11,101 (35%) were homicides, 851 (3%) were accidental discharges. The vast majority, 19,766 (62%), were suicides. The U.S. is right in the middle for suicide rates in OECD countries [wikipedia.org], so it's reasonable to believe most of those suicides would have been successful even without access to guns.
Re:What's wrong with "the perception"? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a poorly edited summary. As I posted above in response to a similar comment, the full text shows that they're trying to change the perception that because traffic deaths are accidental that they're unavoidable.
Re:Only one thing to do! (Score:4, Insightful)
Legal ownership of guns reduces crime.
Ok. Lets assume that this were true. (There's no proof of this, but I'm not even interested in having that argument. Lets just assume, for the sake of argument that the presence of educated and responsible gun owners reduces crime.)
That's fine. Lets have those.
But what about uneducated irresponsible idiots? What about the clinically depressed? What about convicted violent felons? Does giving them guns reduce crime? Gun suicides and gun accidents skyrocket with legal ownership.
Virtually all the proposed gun legislation out there would not take away legal gun ownership anyway, so spasming over that is a red herring.
Gun advocates aren't waging a war to be able to own guns. They're figting a war against 'background checks' and paperwork for sales at gun shows and on craigslist. They're fighting so that even the most deranged lunatic or depressed idiot or convicted violent felon can buy a gun legally without so much as any one saying "maybe that guy shouldn't have a gun".
The whole mockery of the gun-advocate isn't because they have a legitimate argument about crime, or the 2nd amendment -- because they do have a legitimate argument to make. But there's no reason a confirmed idiot who has a history of getting drunk and shooting at passing cars should be able to get a gun as easily as a box of instant noodles.
Re:Dominican Republic, Iran and Thailand stats (Score:5, Insightful)
14,000 vs 5 is not a close call in my book.
Premise fail (Score:0, Insightful)
Deaths per capita is not a useful statistic. Deaths per car mile traveled is much more enlightening. The US population has steadily increased and the death rate per mile travelled has steadily decreased. In the US there is about 1 - 1.2 deaths per 100 MILLION vehicle miles traveled. The UK death rate is 4.1 per 100 MILLION miles traveled. BUT if you look at the data provided in the chart, it would appear driving in the UK is safer than the US. But, it is not.