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army1987 comments on How to avoid dying in a car crash - Less Wrong
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Indeed, all other things (including my level of tiredness) being equal, I find it easier to drive at night than during the day. (The darkness for some reason makes it easier for me to concentrate on the road and harder for me to be distracted by other stuff, it's easier for me to see distant cars (with their lights on) in the dark than in the light -- especially if the sun is shining and it has been raining -- the reflection of the sunlight on the wet road nearly blinds me.)
Oh man, the sun. So glad that I don't have to regularly drive at sunrise and sunset (which, unfortunately, tend to be most people's commute times). I wish more roads were NW/SE and NE/SW to make the sun's position less of an issue, but that's difficult to change now.
In June, the sun rises in the NE and sets in the NW; in December, it rises in the SE and sets in the SW. If I'm modelling the geometry in my head correctly, W/E roads are indeed worst overall, but N/S roads are best.
ETA: I'm pretty sure that a global change as you suggest would still be an overall improvement.
Are those effects latitude dependent?
The effect exists at all latitudes where a sunrise or sunset actually occurs, but the precise direction (how much N or S of W or E) will vary with latitude (as well as date, of course). The extreme case is the point near the pole where the sunrise or sunset is barely averted, where the position of the sun will be due N or S (neither W nor E since it is simultaneously rise and set); even at the equator, however, the sun will be somewhat N or S of W or E. The exception is when sunrise or sunset occurs at the precise moment of equinox; then all latitudes will experience a sunrise or sunset, and all (except at the poles themselves where these directions don't exist) will experience it as due W or E. (All exact claims are theoretical assuming a perfectly spherical Earth, but the general phenomenon should occur any time that's not very close to the equinox and any place that's not right up next to a cliff or something.)
Unless, of course, I want to get somewhere east or west of me.
Then they aren't so useful.
Assuming you're not in a polar region, you should be able to set up a network of NW/SE, and NE/SW roads that never face directly towards the sun; using these, you can get anywhere. As you get farther from the equator, however, the NW/SE and NE/SW roads have to get ever closer to being due N/S roads, so travelling E or W becomes ever more inconvenient. And once you reach an (Ant)-Arctic Circle, no directions are safe.
(Dunno how much of this is because I first started learning to drive in December when it was dark most of the time, and even now I mostly drive at night -- I prefer using public transportation during the day.)