I think this post could do with some estimates of absolute risks.
According to the site you link to, there are 7476 deaths in traffic accidents for people in the 15-24 age range (NB - this presumably includes pedestrians, so is a massive overestimate of the deaths of people who were driving, but I'll go with it for now).
In total, there were 21,859,806 males in your age group, so your probability of dying in a road traffic accident in any given year is approximately 0.0003. This translates to a risk per day of approximately 0.0000009.
Combining these numbers naively, the risk of being involved in a traffic accident on the first snowy day is approximately 0.0000009*1.14. In other words, your excess risk of dying by driving on the first snowy day is approximately 0.0000001. Even assuming that driving in snow is 10 times more dangerous than driving in normal conditions, this risk is 1 in 1 million. Is it really worth going out of your way to avoid driving on the first snowy day to avoid a 1 in 1 million increased chance of dying?
It is worth noting that as an avid transhumanist, I might well expect Michael to think that a 1 in 1 million increased chance of living as long as the Singularity, or dying in such a way as to allow his head to be frozen is probably worth quite a lot. But by revealed preference, most people in the US are only willing to pay around $10 to avoid a 1 in 1 million chance of dying (cf The Value of Statistcal Life), and so should probably only avoid driving on the first snowy day if they'd be willing to pay less than $10 to avoid the inconvenience.
The other examples could do with a similar analysis. A good way of thinking about it is how many fewer people would you expect to die if 1000 people took your advice.
Another point is that, even for the avid transhumanist, it seems unlikely that avoiding traffic accidents really is the best way of trying to live long enough to reach the Singularity - basically no-one dies before the age of 40 - a much more common cause of death among today's 15-24 year olds than dying in an RTA is living until you're 45 and then dying of Coronary Heart Disease, so you should probably look at optimising your lifestyle/diet to avoid that before you worry too much about getting an ipod cable for the car (although, actually, just running some quick numbers in my head, it seems like that one is likely to be a good investment). I note Dymtry has already made a comment along these lines.
Finally, some of the advice from other people that you've included in your bullet-pointed list is just terrible. Cycling is around 10 times more dangerous per passenger mile than driving. One anecdote which says that cycling might increase your ability to drive safely cannot possibly outweigh the massive evidence that says cycling is massively more likely to get you killed than driving is. Similarly, I would like to see some evidence that, say, driving safety courses actually help. Someone on the internet said so is not very convincing.
What's my point?
First - thou shalt not report odds ratios. There is a wealth of literature on the subject which says that people make better decisions when present with absolute risk estimates than with odds ratios.
Second - it always pays to crunch some numbers. Car crashes are the most common cause of death among 15-24 year olds, but it is far from clear that steps taken to avoid car crashes are the best way for 15-24 year olds to extend their lifespan.
Third, [citation needed]. If you are compiling a list of advice like this, I think the onus is on you to make some effort to check that the advice you're giving is useful, or at least to put a disclaimer saying that you haven't. This could be useful resource, if it could be trusted.
(accidental double-post)
Aside from cryonics and eating better, what else can we do to live long lives?
Using this tool, I looked up the risks of death for my demographic group. As a 15-24 year old male in the United States, the most likely cause of my death is a traffic accident; and so I’m taking steps to avoid that. Below I have included the results of my research as well as the actions I will take to implement my findings. Perhaps my research can help you as well.1
Before diving into the results, I will note that this data took me one hour to collect. It’s definitely not comprehensive, and I know that working together, we can do much better. So if you have other resources or data-backed recommendations on how to avoid dying in a traffic accident, leave a comment below and I’ll update this post.
General points
Changing your behavior can reduce your risk of death in a car crash. A 1985 report on British and American crash data discovered that “driver error, intoxication and other human factors contribute wholly or partly to about 93% of crashes.” Other drivers’ behavior matters too, of course, but you might as well optimize your own.2
Secondly, overconfidence appears to be a large factor in peoples’ thinking about traffic safety. A speaker for the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) stated that “Ninety-five percent of crashes are caused by human error… but 75% of drivers say they're more careful than most other drivers. Less extreme evidence for overconfidence about driving is presented here.
One possible cause for this was suggested by the Transport Research Laboratory, which explains that “...the feeling of being confident in more and more challenging situations is experienced as evidence of driving ability, and that 'proven' ability reinforces the feelings of confidence. Confidence feeds itself and grows unchecked until something happens – a near-miss or an accident.”
So if you’re tempted to use this post as an opportunity to feel superior to other drivers, remember: you’re probably overconfident too! Don’t just humbly confess your imperfections – change your behavior.
Top causes of accidents
Distraction
Driver distraction is one of the largest causes of traffic accident deaths. The Director of Traffic Safety at the American Automobile Association stated that "The research tells us that somewhere between 25-50 percent of all motor vehicle crashes in this country really have driver distraction as their root cause." The NHTSA reports the number as 16%.
If we are to reduce distractions while driving, we ought to identify which distractors are the worst. One is cell phone use. My solution: Don’t make calls in the car, and turn off your phone’s sound so that you aren’t tempted.
I brainstormed other major distractors and thought of ways to reduce their distracting effects.
Distractor: Looking at directions on my phone as I drive
Distractor: Texting, Facebook, slowing down to gawk at an accident, looking at scenery
Distractor: Fatigue
Distractor: Other passengers
Distractor: Adjusting the radio
A last interesting fact about distraction, from Wikipedia:
Speeding
The Road and Traffic Authority of New South Wales claims that “speeding… is a factor in about 40 percent of road deaths.” Data from the NHTSA puts the number at 30%.
Speeding also increases the severity of crashes; “in a 60 km/h speed limit area, the risk of involvement in a casualty crash doubles with each 5 km/h increase in travelling speed above 60 km/h.”
Stop. Think about that for a second. I’ll convert it to the Imperial system for my fellow Americans: “in a [37.3 mph] speed limit area, the risk of involvement in a casualty crash doubles with each [3.1 mph] increase in travelling speed above [37.3 mph].” Remember that next time you drive a 'mere' 5 mph over the limit.
Equally shocking is this paragraph from the Freakonomics blog:
Driving too slowly can be dangerous too. An NHTSA presentation cites two studies that found a U-shaped relationship between vehicle speed and crash incidence; thus “Crash rates were lowest for drivers traveling near the mean speed, and increased with deviations above and below the mean.”
However, driving fast is still far more dangerous than driving slowly. This relationship appears to be exponential, as you can see on the tenth slide of the presentation.
Driving conditions
Driving conditions are another source of driving risk.
One factor I discovered was the additional risk from driving at night. Nationwide, 49% of fatal crashes happen at night, with a fatality rate per mile of travel about three times as high as daytime hours. (Source)
Berkeley research on 1.4 million fatal crashes found that “fatal crashes were 14% more likely to happen on the first snowy day of the season compared with subsequent ones.” The suggested hypothesis is that people take at least a day to recalibrate their driving behavior in light of new snow.
Another valuable factoid: 77% of weather-related fatalities (and 75% of all crashes!) involve wet pavement.
Statistics are available for other weather-related issues, but the data I found wasn’t adjusted for the relative frequencies of various weather conditions. That’s problematic; it might be that fog, for example, is horrendously dangerous compared to ice or slush, but it’s rarer and thus kills fewer people. I’m interested in looking at appropriately adjusted statistics.
Other considerations
Commenters' recommendations
I should note here that I have not personally verified anything posted below. Be sure to look at the original comment and do followup research before depending on these recommendations.
1All bolding in the data was added for emphasis by me.
2The report notes that "57% of crashes were due solely to driver factors, 27% to combined roadway and driver factors, 6% to combined vehicle and driver factors, 3% solely to roadway factors, 3% to combined roadway, driver, and vehicle factors, 2% solely to vehicle factors and 1% to combined roadway and vehicle factors.”