Lifetime care for the additional seriously injured will be very expensive...

I live in a retirement center, here it is very obvious that driving licenses should be revoked when vision, reflexes and other driving skills reach the level of the average 75 year old. But, since the majority of voters here are retirees- instead they keep making it easier for the extremely elderly to keep driving themselves - because, of course the world can't take their freedom of movement away from them.

IMO, the big problem is just a matter of standards and practicality. The bar for a DL is "can operate a vehicle" and not "can safely drive a vehicle in public for extended periods of time." I agree with periodic re-licensing though; everything else called a "license" seems to need that for a host of reasons.

You're right about turn signals.

A lot of people have "target fixation" and telegraph their moves somewhat. I look at where the car is tracking in the lane and what their head is doing (if I can see it). Most people drift left or right on the highway before they change lanes, exit, or turn. It's no excuse for bad manners, but it helps.

Oh yea. I'll watch the wheels, their head, and if I can see them reposition their hands, I'll look for that.

I don't trust anyone when I'm on the road.

The U.S. death rate is about 750 / 100,000 overall, with about 14.1 of those 750 declared suicide (you can never really know, but the suspected actual suicide rate is a bit higher, to preserve insurance benefits...)

The current US death rate by automobile accident is around 13.4 per 100,000 - so, by those statistics, people are already slightly more likely to take their own lives by choice than they are to die in an auto accident.

Of course if you choose to walk, you're not entirely safe, the US pedestrian death rate is around 2 per 100,000, and that's with most people driving everywhere most of the time.

Another fun way to look at the end is lifetime odds:

Death by suicide: 1/87
Death by automobile accident: 1/93 (which seems to indicate in itself that deaths by auto accident are expected to decline, or perhaps have recently increased slightly?)
Death by firearm (US): 1/91
Suicide by firearm (US): 1/156

Next time you're driving on a 2 lane highway at speed, oncoming cars approaching at a relative velocity of 100mph and more (50 in your direction 50 in theirs...) count oncoming cars. When you get to 87, odds are that one of those drivers will ultimately die by suicide... there's a little solace in the fact that most of them won't be doing it by swerving into oncoming traffic, and the bigger relief is that most of those that do, won't be doing it at that particular moment just before you pass.

As for guns - that's a whole different mess, but interesting that the numbers are so close.

I don’t trust anyone when I’m on the road.

And you shouldn't. Everyone is equipped with a lethal weapon masquerading as personal transportation, where safety is predicated on mutually-assured-destruction and the presumption that everyone is a sane actor. Keep your head on a swivel and stay safe out there!

And I'm saying I can see them most of the time, and when I can't, I don't need to because their intention is obvious.

If we limited drivers permits to the 8% or so of drivers who are actually competent we'd solve a lot of problems in several domains.

I self-selected as ineligible to drive years ago, and I've never regretted it. Of course I had to move away from my home country and learn a new language, but those are the shakes.

Some people don't care about their cars at all. They will damage their own just to spite another driver.

I've driven big 30ft box trucks that are governed at 60mph and daily a 2 seater sports car. There is nothing worth fucking up my day just to win an argument on who gets to go first.

Fatal motor vehicle accidents are just over 865000 times more common than commercial air travel accidents, but until dash cams we never got to see them, so people think it can't happen to them, when it's slightly worse than even odds.

No test prepared me for black ice. Sure they tell you to be careful when temps drop but how much slower should you go? I guessed wrong and crashed. There are too many conditions that you just never get to experience where one misjudgement has dire consequences.

What fucks me up is hearing about experienced drivers crashing in similar ways, so you're never really going to figure out everything, especially during snowy seasons, you just have to hope that whatever you do is correct and risk your life.

Yeah no shit for families but for people that have the choice. Fuckin dumbass

I learned to drive in Florida. Saw my first snow while driving five years later, I was trying to take a (rented) front wheel drive minivan out to get breakfast and about 5" of snow had fallen overnight. I put it in drive and it barely moved. I cut the wheel and it moved a little, I cut the wheel back and it moved a little more. I tried saw-toothing the steering left and right and got up a little speed, finally getting up to about 5mph while sawing the wheel back and forth. I drove around the parking lot like this, twice, before deciding: people do this all the time, it has to get easier after I get going... as I started toward the exit, I noticed: the parking brake was on, I had been dragging the locked rear wheels around the parking lot behind me. I released the parking brake and driving in snow became 100x easier from there on out.

I'll be the judge of that once I'm a passenger in such a scenario.

I live in Maine. Riding a motorcycle in the winter is not only highly unpleasant, it's borderline suicidal.

I'm all for 2 wheeled transport where it works, but anywhere that gets snow for months out of each year it's a non starter as a primary transportation mode

The reason why I made my comment is because in the US some car manufacturers use the rear brake lights for the indicator lights too. Which is just stupid and dangerous and thankfully illegal in Europe.

It would be really stupid to have amber brake lights in the front. And given US car manufacturers track record, they'd be so stupid to repurpose the front indicator lights as front brake lights to cut costs.

Make it blue or green or any other color, but not amber or white.
The amber color should only be used for the indicator lights, and should be amber on the front, side and back of the car.

How about reducing the brightness of headlights so I don't feel like the sun is driving at me at night?

Also, if the car is in drive the headlights should go into auto mode. Always see people driving with just parking lights on at sundown.

I see too many people treat a roundabout like a stop sign when it is clearly empty.

I hope so. I dug up this old video I watched ages ago that articulates really well why they're a bad idea.

Once we have proper self driving cars none of these recent "innovations" like that or the speed limiting would matter.

Ideally self driving cars would also be without a steering wheel and just be half width with a single seat or two seats facing each other to reduce energy requirements. You could just develop this with a manhattan style project and test it in a single city banning all other private cars except delivery vehicles.