Our Houston car accident attorneys note an interesting article from the carinsurance.com website. The article relies on information from the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) and a California economist to determine that gridlock could indeed save your life.
Car insurance companies spend a lot of time reviewing factors that cause accidents. They spend just as much time studying data tied to lowered accident rates. This is because fewer accidents mean fewer insurance payouts.
The data from TTI and the economist demonstrate that areas with higher traffic congestion also have lower average traffic speeds due to gridlock. These gridlocked areas produce fewer traffic accidents, and the accidents that they do produce tend to be of lower severity. Bicyclists and pedestrians also experience lower accident rates, especially for fatal accidents, in gridlocked urban areas.
Anyone who’s lived in Manhattan could probably attest to the truth of the data. In Manhattan, particularly below about 96th Street, the average daytime traffic speed rarely exceeds 9 mph. In many areas, you can actually walk a distance faster than someone can drive it. That’s because more cars congest Manhattan than the streets can really handle.
Conversely, in some areas of rural Texas, where vehicles are few and far between, drivers can (and do) easily achieve some very high speeds. Then our Houston car accident attorneys remind you that all it takes is a moment of distraction, a little fatigue, or the sudden appearance of a drunk driver to result in a high-speed, fatal crash.
So the next time you’re sitting in traffic fuming because you’re late to work again and you’re spending two hours each day on a 9 mile commute, give thanks for the gridlock. It’s better to arrive late than never to arrive at all.
On the other hand, our Houston car accident attorneys must point out that the carinsurance.com article did not contain any statistical data establishing whether the stress you experience in constant gridlock might not take as many years off your life as the slowed speed of gridlock saves. Nor did it account for those incidents where frustrating gridlock leads to road rage incidents taking multiple lives.
The Houston car accident attorneys at Denena & Points know from long litigation experience that there are always multiple sides to any story. So when you see intriguing articles like the one about gridlock from the car insurance industry, take a moment to look for aspects of the big picture that might be missing. While the gridlock story offers some essential truths (reduced speeds DO save lives), there are always other aspects to consider. Road rage can be quite deadly for instance. And it’s often inspired by gridlock.
Take a look at our book on what to do after a serious Houston car wreck. It’s free to our readers. You can download it from this webpage. You might find it very helpful and informative should you experience a high-speed wreck in a non-gridlocked area of our region of Texas.