Levels of Stupid

This snazzy advertisement from J&P Cycles appeared in my inbox this morning. One one level, I wanted to write something about how incredibly inappropriate it is to be loading up your hippobike with alcohol advertisements. On another level, I sort of hit the limits on my patience for human, especially American, stupidity. If you follow the link, you'll find all sorts of cheap chrome crap with which you can decorate your cheap chrome crap Harley or yourself.

Why decorating yourself with stuff like this wouldn't be justification for pulling over a rider for a blood alcohol test, any time of the day, beats me. I would even be good with "putting a couple of warning shots into the head, as a warning," as my father used to say.

Crashes and Deaths by State

How crazy are the drivers in your home state? The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does a nice job of providing data for you to decide. Unfortunately, my HTML/Google Blogger capabilities makes this harder than it should be to read. I apologize for that. Excel spreadsheets don't transfer smoothly to webpage tables and correcting the spacing and alignment is beyond my patience and interest. This is 2017 data, but I doubt ANYTHING has improved since then, since nothing else in this country is getting better.

State	Population	Vehicle miles traveled (millions)	Fatal crashes	Deaths	Deaths per 100,000 population	Deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled
South Carolina	5,024,369	54,859	924	988	19.7	1.8
Mississippi	2,984,100	41,387	614	690	23.1	1.67
Louisiana	4,684,333	48,094	696	760	16.2	1.58
Alaska	739,795	5,028	75	79	10.7	1.57
Kentucky	4,454,189	50,284	721	782	17.6	1.56
West Virginia	1,815,857	20,106	280	303	16.7	1.51
Arizona	7,016,270	67,821	919	1,000	14.3	1.47
Montana	1,050,493	12,738	169	186	17.7	1.46
Florida	20,984,400	215,810	2,922	3,112	14.8	1.44
Kansas	2,913,123	32,504	407	461	15.8	1.42
Texas	28,304,596	270,621	3,343	3,722	13.1	1.38
Arkansas	3,004,279	35,746	457	493	16.4	1.38
Idaho	1,716,943	17,676	223	244	14.2	1.38
South Dakota	869,666	9,341	111	129	14.8	1.38
Alabama	4,874,747	69,277	864	948	19.4	1.37
New Mexico	2,088,070	28,171	340	379	18.2	1.35
Oklahoma	3,930,864	49,228	611	655	16.7	1.33
Tennessee	6,715,984	80,128	959	1,040	15.5	1.3
Wyoming	579,315	9,492	105	123	21.2	1.3
Georgia	10,429,379	122,398	1,440	1,540	14.8	1.26
Missouri	6,113,532	74,005	863	930	15.2	1.26
Colorado	5,607,154	53,750	600	648	11.6	1.21
North Carolina	10,273,419	117,754	1,306	1,412	13.7	1.2
North Dakota	755,393	9,760	105	115	15.2	1.18
Oregon	4,142,776	37,528	400	437	10.5	1.16
Delaware	961,939	10,242	112	119	12.4	1.16
Indiana	6,666,818	80,282	836	914	13.7	1.14
Maine	1,335,907	15,063	163	172	12.9	1.14
Nevada	2,998,039	27,803	290	309	10.3	1.11
Pennsylvania	12,805,537	104,022	1,083	1,137	8.9	1.09
Nebraska	1,920,076	20,828	210	228	11.9	1.09
Rhode Island	1,059,639	7,997	76	83	7.8	1.04
California	39,536,653	353,868	3,304	3,602	9.1	1.02
Illinois	12,802,023	107,369	1,005	1,097	8.6	1.02
Hawaii	1,427,538	10,513	96	107	7.5	1.02
Ohio	11,658,609	117,194	1,094	1,179	10.1	1.01
Michigan	9,962,311	103,080	939	1,030	10.3	1
Virginia	8,470,020	85,335	783	839	9.9	0.98
Wisconsin	5,795,483	64,160	557	613	10.6	0.96
Iowa	3,145,711	34,241	301	330	10.5	0.96
Maryland	6,052,177	59,417	511	550	9.1	0.93
Vermont	623,657	7,436	63	69	11.1	0.93
Washington	7,405,743	61,569	536	565	7.6	0.92
Connecticut	3,588,184	32,126	260	278	7.7	0.87
District of Columbia	693,972	3,550	29	31	4.5	0.87
Utah	3,101,833	31,874	247	273	8.8	0.86
New Jersey	9,005,644	76,550	591	624	6.9	0.82
New York	19,849,399	129,146	933	999	5	0.77
New Hampshire	1,342,795	13,467	98	102	7.6	0.76
Minnesota	5,576,606	57,922	340	357	6.4	0.62
Massachusetts	6,859,819	60,560	336	350	5.1	0.58

For me, there were few surprises. I absolutely admit that I would assume that Red States have a higher percentage of pissed off assholes and the resulting sorts of highway deaths and mayhem.Texas is, as you'd expect if you've ever driven or (suicidal-ly ridden a motorcycle) in that nutbin of a state, Deathrace 2017 and Beyond: 10 million fewer people than California but 100 more people dead on the highways. The Southeast is consistently the most dangerous place to be on the road with only Virginia in the safest states at #14. Minnesota Nice appears to be reflected in our highway safety record. Traffic congestion seems to be less of a contributor to highway fatalities than you might think, since Massachusetts, New York, California, and many of the  states with significant urban traffic are under-represented in fatality numbers.