That doesn't seem like a very good metric to me. There's no way there's any single number that can properly compare driving deaths between countries, but shouldn't this at least be normalized to account for number of drivers? Like what if Finland just has a lot of long, empty roads? Also doesn't there need to be a comparison within the German data on deaths on roads with and without speed limits?
Fatalities should be measured in terms of miles travelled. Not per mile of highway, or per number of cars, or per capita. Someone who drives five days a week, 60 miles per day is going to have a higher risk of getting into an accident that someone who drives only on weekends, 30 miles per day. This does have any bearing on how safe the roads are.
I agree with you that miles travelled is a better metric.
But traffic density would be another interesting metric. Temporary speed limits on the autobahn are typically dynamically adjusted to the traffic situation.
Not all motorways are made equal, and that may play a role as well.
I frequently drive over French, Italian, German motorways and can say the quality and maintenance of the road vary greatly between European countries.
Eventually, I see so many other factors that could enter the picture that I’m wondering if that comparison makes any sense at all (apart from proving the writer is trying to force his point?).
Finland doesn't have much of a motorway network and also has serious winter conditions, black ice on the roads for much of the year in all major coastal cities, etc. If anything it's an even more astonishing number when you account for this.
Not really, in my opinion. When conditions are obviously bad, people behave more cautiously. It is when everything seems fine and easy that people get too comfortable with pushing the limits, or things get too boring, and mistakes happen.
Finland doesn't have lot of motorways. So they are pretty well taken care of and possibly only risk is hitting a bridge. As there is quite wide shoulders. Add to this density is pretty low so in many parts there is not much traffic.
There is lot of highways though. And those can be middle of forest with 80 speed limit. So losing control and hitting upcoming traffic or tree is much more likely.
That doesn't seem like a very good metric to me. There's no way there's any single number that can properly compare driving deaths between countries, but shouldn't this at least be normalized to account for number of drivers? Like what if Finland just has a lot of long, empty roads? Also doesn't there need to be a comparison within the German data on deaths on roads with and without speed limits?