[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by mcguire

1960 transportation fatalities, Highway total: 36,399 (Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
1960 population: 179,323,175 (Wikipedia)
1960 registered vehicles: 73,858 (infoplease.com, US Dept. of Transportation)
1960 vehicle miles traveled: 719,000 (infoplease.com)
1960 fatalities per 1000 miles: 50 (infoplease.com)
1960 average miles per gallon: 12.4 (infoplease.com)

2000 transportation fatalities: 41,945
2000 population: 281,421,906
2000 registered vehicles: 225,821
2000 vehicle miles traveled: 2,749,803 (About 60% passenger car; 1960 about 80% passenger car)
2000 fatalities per 1000 miles: 15
2000 average miles per gallon: 16.9 (Yikes. Passenger car: 22)



Actually, as I recall, most of the "extreme sports" are very safe. You want a dangerous sport, try horseback riding.

Yours desperately in need of a research librarian,

Those type of stats need to be taken in context as well. In the 60's 90% of the roads around here were dirt or gravel, all roads were 2 lane (in this area), most intersections were uncontrolled (in fact that was the case in the 1980's on most of the suburb/around town roads from what I remember) Snow removal was not so good (my father used to drive his snowmobile to work everyday in the winter because he couldn't get where he had to go). The hills were high and the roads curved around every little burg and farm (aka they weren't straightened, and flattened and sometimes were frightening during the day with dry ground) So perhaps the driving conditions themselves were also to blame?