From the last thread:
re: #214 dat_said

I want to amend this somewhat. I’m not clear that it’s a relevant comparison (per mile driven). It’s much safer to drive 350 miles across ND on I94 at 75mph than it is to drive 30 miles around the Twin Cities on I694 & I494. Maybe per trip would be a better comparison ?

Actually false.

Aside from the speed difference which makes crashes much more deadly, rural people deal much more often with road obstacles which urban drivers don’t often see (cattle, deer, elk, &c).

Urban/rural comparison (Insurance Institute of Highway Safety)

(with charts including per mile death rate which is also higher in rural areas)

Urban and rural areas have fundamentally different characteristics with regard to density of road networks, land use and travel patterns. Consequently, the characteristics of fatal motor vehicle crashes differ between rural and urban areas. For example, pedestrian and bicyclist deaths and deaths at intersections are more prevalent in urban areas, whereas a larger proportion of large truck occupant deaths and deaths on high-speed roads occur in rural areas. Although 20 percent of people in the U.S. live in rural areas and 32 percent of the vehicle miles traveled occur in rural areas, 40 percent of crash deaths occur there.

The following facts are based on analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). In FARS, rural and urban boundaries are determined by state highway departments and approved by the Federal Highway Administration. Reliable information on rural and urban areas has been available in FARS since 1977.

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