Random Thoughts on Traffic

I just finished the book Traffic. It's a departure from the books I usually read, but it was a good psychological/sociological survey of why behave the way we do behind the wheel of a car. Some of the more interesting findings:

• Despite the marketing that says advertise, 85% of the people killed in accidents in construction zones are drivers; 15% are construction workers.
• You have roughly a 1 in 100 chance of dying in a fatal car crash over a lifetime of driving of 50 years (feeling lucky?!?)
• There is a strong correlation between a country's GDP and the number of fatalties on their road- the higher the GDP, the lower the number of fatalities. Interestingly, an even better predictor is the amount of corruption in a country. The more corrupt a country is, the more fatalities that occur on their roads.
• Men are riskier drivers then women, but they drive safer when a woman is a passenger.
• You are 134 times more likely to be killed in traffic at 3 AM on Sunday morning than you would be driving at 10 AM on Sunday morning.
• Since the 1960s (when the State Department first began tracking the data), roughly 5,000 Americans have been killed as a result of terrorism. Each year in the US, an average of 40,000 people are killed on our roads (more are killed each month than in 9/11). Makes you wonder if we need a Department of Homeland Traffic Safety.