On Saturday, June 21, 2014 10:01:35 PM UTC-4, spsffan wrote:   
      
   > Also, I daresay that fatalities were considered more of a "cost of business"   
   back in the 1950s than today. They used to just sweep up the mess and say "too   
   bad". Now, they actually report fatalities on the news!   
      
   No, decades ago they certainly made the newspapers, including grisly pictures   
   of the crash scene.   
      
   Safety has been a big issue in the automotive world since at least the 1930s,   
   maybe even earlier.  A common theme for newspaper articles.  Vehicles were   
   continually improved with better safety--back then it was improved tires   
   (early tires were terrible),    
   better brakes, safety glass, and body construction.  Roads were improved as   
   new ones were built or old ones rebuilt with better drainage, width,   
   visibility; but this was expensive.  Driver education was improved--at some   
   point years ago they introduced    
   driver's ed in schools and AAA had courses to give professional instruction.    
   Enforcement was improved.   
      
   By the way, transit companies lead the way in the 1920s for better pedestrian   
   safety, such as crossing in crosswalks and not jay walking.  They organized   
   better safety for school children leaving school.   
      
   But the flip side was that safety cost money and people didn't want to pay   
   it.  Heck, in the google streetview example I posted above, those roads only   
   had a tiny curblike median strip until about 1980, when a 'jersey curb' was   
   installed.  Today, lots of    
   busy highways have no median strip at all.   
      
   Studebaker came out with seatbelts circa 1955.  No one wanted them.  Ever   
   after seatbelts were mandated in 1968, it took _years_ before motorists would   
   wear them, and even today plenty refuse to.   
      
   In the roads newsgroup, you will see many vehemently demanding higher speed   
   limits.  In the 1950s, they sued Robt Moses demanding he raise his parkway   
   speed limits.  Moses lost.   
      
   On crowded roads, higher speeds lead to more crashes of more severity.  Speed   
   demons say the fatality rate is down, but ignore the crash rate or damage cost.   
      
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