Rural Driving

Hazards of rural driving

• Roads are not always intuitive• Livestock/wild animals• Roadside stands/gas stations• Poor roadway design• Two lane routes• Non-traditional Vehicles• Distance from emergency services• Speed• UFOs

Rural roads are not always intuitive

Rural roads are not always intuitive

Livestock & Wild Animals

Livestock & Wild Animals

• Don't be an idiot - have your seat belt on• Slow down upon seeing a deer crossing sign - they

are there for a reason.•  Be especially weary during dawn & dusk•  Deer are usually not alone - this can be doubly

dangerous, as one can distract you from the "whole picture."

• Use your brights, the eyes of animals are reflective.

•  There may be a situation where hitting the animal is the safest choice.

• Deer warning devices have been proven not to work.

Road side stands/gas stations

• These are designed to get your attention. It is usually the only way a rural town or city can gain business.

  • They can also be a distraction. ie.

nude cafe.  

Poor roadway design• Rural roads are more likely than urban roads to

have poor roadway design, including narrow lanes, limited shoulders, sharp curves, exposed hazards, pavement drop-offs, steep slopes and limited clear zones along roadsides.

• Many rural routes have been constructed over a period of years and as a result often have inconsistent design features for such things as lane widths, curves, shoulders and clearance zones along roadsides.

 • Super soft, odd, shoulders.

Two Lane Roads

• Rural roads are more likely than urban roads to be two-lane routes. Seventy percent of the nation’s urban non-freeway arterial and collector roads have two lanes, but 94 percent of rural non-freeway, arterial and collector routes have two lanes.

Non-traditional Vehicles

Non-traditional Vehicles

Non-traditional Vehicles

Distance from Emergency Services

• In about 30 percent of fatal rural traffic accidents in 2002, victims who died did not reach a hospital within an hour of the crash, whereas only eight percent of people injured in fatal, urban traffic accidents did not reach a hospital within an hour.

Speed Kills• From 1999 to 2003, 66 percent of the traffic

fatalities that occurred on non-Interstate rural roads were in accidents on routes with speed limits 55 miles per hour or higher. But only 40 percent of traffic fatalities on all other routes occurred on roads or highways with a speed limit of 55 miles per hour or higher.

• Slow down idiots!!!!

UFOs

• Everyone knows that one is more likely to be abducted in a rural area.

• Haven't you seen Fire in the Sky man? 

  

Some other odd things happen

•Velocitation•Highway Hypnosis

Velocitation

• Velocitation occurs when you unconsciously go too fast on the freeway. 

• Velocitation is caused by long periods of high speed travel.

• The eyes become fatigued in the horizontal plane to images streaming through the windscreen.

• The eyes can no longer judge horizontal velocity correctly and as such cannot judge safe following distances.

• The only remedy is to stop the images streaming through the windscreen, to do this stop and park for several minutes to allow the eyes to rest.

Highway Hypnosis

• is a mental state in which a person can drive a truck or automobile great distances, responding to external events in the expected manner with no recollection of having consciously done so.

• This has happened to you if you have ever had an instance where you didn't remember driving to a destination. 

Some Helpful facts....(hint, hint)• Accidents on the nation’s rural, non-Interstate routes resulted in an average of

22,127 fatalities annually from 1999 to 2003, accounting for more than half – 52 percent – of the nation’s traffic deaths.

• Most head-on crashes on rural, non-Interstate roads are likely caused by a motorist making an unintentional maneuver as a result of driver fatigue, being distracted or driving too fast in a curve.

• Approximately 60 million people – 21 percent of the nation’s population – live in rural communities in the United States, an increase of approximately 11 percentsince 1990.

• The 2000 Census found that 30 percent of rural Americans have a one-way dailycommute of 30 minutes or longer.

• Motorists are approximately four times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision between vehicles going in opposite directions while traveling on a rural, non-Interstate route than on any other roads.

Quiz questions

1. True or False? 

It's OK to NOT wear your seat belt while driving in a rural area

because everyone knows there are no other cars around.

False!!!

 

2. True or False?  

Deer warning devices are amazing and save millions of deer every

single year!

False!!!

3. True or False? 

Highway Hypnosis is one of Chris Angels many, many talents?

False!!!

4. True or False?  

Velocitation is where one thinks they are going super duper fast, when in reality, they are going

super duper slow.

False!!!

 

5. True or False? 

Rural roads are as safe, or safer than state roads.

False!!!