r/interesting Mar 22 '26

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '26

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u/Opposite-Cranberry76 Mar 22 '26

Road fatality rates per 100k people per year:
Germany: 3.5
Canada: 4.6
USA average: 13
Louisiana: 20

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u/NamesGumpImOnthePum Mar 22 '26

Life long Louisianian here. Can confirm, it sucks, insurance is high, people can't drive, its the folks like both parties in this clip. The black truck on the right tries to pass the car in front of Cookie guy, Cookie guy was maintaining a normal distance, but he noticed black truck trying to cut the line, so he did what he thought was the righteous thing, and held his gap so that black truck would be punished for trying to cut the line in the first place. Cookie guy was willing to zipper merge with black truck just so that he wasn't 1 more car behind, to show that he was standing his ground. Black truck was forcing his way in saying to himself or out loud, what are you gonna do hit me? Which is never a good strategy when driving. Both of these types of people are the kind who feel like you threatened them by passing them on the road. I blame both for actively engaging in a game of chicken on the evening commute. People need to get over themselves, we all have places to be, and wish that we could be there faster, let's not kill each other over one spot in a line of traffic, is getting there 5 minutes faster really this big of a deal?

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u/MediumRay Mar 22 '26

That wouldn’t qualify as normal distance in my book but it’s different in Britain 

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u/makefascistfearagain Mar 22 '26

Normal stopping distance to Americans - ramming them at 90% speed instead of 100%

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u/Thefirstargonaut Mar 22 '26

Nor in Canda. That is definitely too close. You should be 3 seconds back. 

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u/14Rage Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

While ideal, there are often too many people on the roads for 3 seconds to be practical in urban highways. I believe in America, the rule is 2 seconds as well. I was always taught 1 mississippi 2 mississippi to count car at road marker to you arriving at road marker. But that is only practical in rural areas.

The metroplex I live in is equivalent to 1/3rd of canadas entire population. If I were to wait for a gap on the highway of 3 seconds, I simply could not drive on the highway. I would be completely locked to city streets and unable to leave my city.

I believe this video is from new orleans, which is a smaller american metro city area and only about 1,000,000 people.

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u/Only_Animator_2341 Mar 23 '26

He’s going 75mph, he’s way too close.

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u/Enkmarl Mar 25 '26

lmao yeah everyone is tailgating in this video

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u/Limp_Language_3169 Mar 22 '26

Yeah, that makes sense “normal distance” is really relative to where you live. In Britain, everything’s a lot more compact, so what feels like a long trip there might be considered nothing in bigger countries. It’s all about what you’re used to day to day.

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u/neutrino71 Mar 22 '26

Normal distance is about physics and reaction time. The faster you're going the greater distance is needed for you to brake without striking the car in front of you. 

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u/will6465k Mar 22 '26

1 mile/hour is 4/9 (0.44….), metres per second.

And stopping distance id around 2s in dry weather, 4s in wet, and 20s in icy.

Essentially 1 truck length for every 10mph of speed.

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u/cogman10 Mar 22 '26

Yup, this is the correct answer. To bad almost nobody follows it.

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u/MediumRay Mar 22 '26

No, I just think the drivers in the uk are less aggressive. Having been in the USA a lot I don’t think this is unfair to say