Could it be technology changed? or maybe everybody had to get used to them?

@The Porkchop Express: I'm betting this. I think a lot of people were used to pumping their brakes to slow down which severely screws with ABS.

@The Porkchop Express: ABS still scares the bejeezus out of me EVERY SINGLE TIME it goes off. (I grew up pumping the breaks on ice.)

I find that when I'm coming to a stop, if I hit some bumps in the road while moving at no more than 5mph, the ABS will kick in and make me feel as though my stopping distance has increased. This has happened to me several times on two different cars. It's a little unnerving.

I think about that a lot when coming to a stop in an area with a lot of pedestrians.

@Shadowfire: There's also the not-so-remote possibility that, like many safety systems, people use their presence to justify behaving in ways they normally wouldn't.

This seems to remind me of a study that found people who wear helmets get into more accidents, as they feel safer, and take riskier chances. I know when driving, I remember that my 1985 Oldsmobile tank couldn't stop on a football field of dimes.

@dialing_wand: That is exactly why I drive defensively.

Of our two cars, only one has ABS. I have to make a mental adjustment when driving the older one to brake appropriately.

I also remember the first time I showed my wife how the ABS worked... that was good for a laugh. After 5 or 10 goes she was used to the buzzing in her foot. She doesn't freak-out about it when she has to use it because she knows what to expect.

@rpm773: I've had the same thing happen. I'm guessing that you are actually skidding, but you might not notice. The ABS system does, and takes it into account.

I've only had one accident in my car (first for me with ABS) and if I had regular brakes, I would have skidded out of control and probably hit several other cars, whereas I only had a low-speed impact with the car that was turning left illegally in front of me.

@dialing_wand: They do consider that possibility as well. However, such reactions don't usually result in such an uptick and in such specific areas.

@GitEmSteveDave_♥'sRenegadeIrishman: I've heard a legend of such a study, but last time it came up discussion, nobody was able to find a citation. I'm theorizing it's therefore not real, I'd love to take it back to my prior discussants.

Risk homeostasis is a funny thing--it seems to happen more with signals and alerts than it does with actual preventative devices, even when said devices are mandatory. When they're optional, of course, it tends to be the more careful who use them, so they're already less risky than the norm.

Two cents:
-Previous cars only had front wheel ABS (still had rear drums!) and no electronic brakeforce distribution. Also ABS has actually gotten less invasive and smarter. It brakes at less than the car's maximum potential (wheels have to lose traction first) so this gap is shrinking.
-Drivers Ed was not emphasizing stomp (on the pedal), stay(on the pedal), and steer(to try and avoid) until nearly year 2000.
-And ABS does make people do things they normally wouldn't, especially in poor weather when they put too much confidence in their big 'ol SUV. I've seen many people drive their suv in the snow as if it were summer, only to brake right into the median. I laugh as I drive my 2wd car right on by.

@brandiniman: Is that the ABS or just the SUV, though?

So, did they disprove the fact that you can stop the same car faster on snow without ABS than with? And that's assuming you just jam your foot on the pedal as hard as you can and pray that you stop.

I'm sticking with my non-ABS cars up in Canada, since the only time I generally end up emergency braking is in the winter.

Repeat after me, ABS does not make you brake in a shorter distance, it only helps you maintain control of the car under braking.

without the unexplained increased liklihood of fatal crashes how did they at one time explain a direct relationship with ABS and more fatalities.
bad drivers. plain and simple.

Given that most type of collisions are showing reduced fatality rates while run-off-road are higher, it's pretty clear to me what's happening. More people are able to maintain control and thus succeed at steering around things that they probably shouldn't have. Steer around fallen tree branch, run off road and roll over. If you had hit the tree branch, you would have had $1,000 in damage. Now you're dead.

@brandiniman: OMG I hated the assholes in their SUV's that would do that, especially on nights where I was using chains.

ABS seems to be more a fast pumping action than any assistance in reducing stopping distance. It's not supposed to come on at all unless the wheels lose traction so if you are driving on dry pavement, you shouldn't even notice ABS. We have it on both of our cars and think it's a pain in the butt. I'd rather be in control of my car than have it controlled by a computer chip.

When I was shopping for my pickup 5 years ago I wanted AWD, 4.7L engine, automatic and a 4.10 rear end. I had to test drive a Durango because it was the only vehicle in the NW, apparently, with that combination. It had 4 wheel ABS and I was test driving on a damp evening. A car stopped suddenly in front of me and I stomped and stayed just like I was supposed to. The vehicle decided that I couldn't possibly really *want* to stop so it didn't clamp on the binders at all. Needless to say, I ordered my Dakota w/o 4 wheel ABS. It has ABS on the rear wheels standard, but it is not as intrusive.

My new Elantra's 4 wheel ABS is almost unnoticable. Last winter I had to do a bit of panic braking on slushy roads and it performed as designed. I think the technology has come a long way and that is making the difference. It used to be so bad that people would take out the fuse for the ABS because it was so dang dangerous. My brother had to decode the VIN on his '92 Olds because it has an ABS light during the self-check. Fortunately, it doesn't have it.

I believe that safety equipment on an automobile is there to help you when things have inadvertently gotten beyond your control. They are not there so you can blithely drive close to and beyond the envelope.

I have always said, "If you drive like Hell, you'll get there faster."

"...that ABS, like four-wheel drive, breeds a false sense of security in some people, who then drive less cautiously than conditions permit."

"less cautiously should be redacted to carelessly/wrecklessly"

Let's see if you can brake faster than I can, Muthaeffer!! (Slam!!!)

@brandiniman: Actually early cars with ABS had ABS on the rear axle only. Not front only. It was thought that the front axle was less likely to lock up due to weight transfer during hard breaking. The rears were seen as being much more likely to lock up and a locked up rear axle can be just as bad as if all 4 locked up. ABS works fine on drums, Semis have had ABS on their air brakes for quite some time, and Semis still use drums for the rear axles of the tractor and the trailer.

Still the newer ABS systems do things a bit differently from the older ones. They have much greater degree of individual wheel control and better valves. They also use a little hydraulic pump on the ABS valve body rather than pedal pressure to cycle the brake cylinders. The rear only ABS of my Explorer is miles behind the ABS system of my friend's 2002 Ranger.

@sir_eccles: And being able to point the car in the right direction while slowing down is almost as important as coming to a safe stop.

I learned this the hard way when the brakes locked on my non-ABS cheapass rental car. I am positive ABS would have spared me from the fender-bender that ensued; I ended up fishtailing into the next lane.

That's what I get for learning to drive on ABS brakes.

Summary

A new study finds that that ABS are useful in decreasing nonfatal crashes because cars with antilock braking systems (ABS) were more likely to be involved in fatal crashes!

@sir_eccles: "Repeat after me, ABS does not make you brake in a shorter distance,"

From the linked article : "Pretty much everybody agrees, and we have demonstrated countless times in our brake tests, that ABS makes for shorter, straighter, more controllable stops, on both wet and dry pavement."

Sir_eccles

@H3ion: "I'd rather be in control of my car than have it controlled by a computer chip. "

Fair enough; however you share the road with countless other drivers. Some of them may be inattentive, unskilled, texting or making phone calls, shouting at screaming kids or plain just have slow responses. Would you rather they be in sole control of emergency braking ? Perhaps its better for that those drivers to have a well designed and engineered computer chip assisting in applying maximum emergency braking force ?

@floraposte: OK, I was a little off. Apparently, cars are more careful around people on bikes without helmets than they are around those wearing them. They give less clearance to helmeted bikers, and more to un-helmeted.
[www.scientificamerican.com]

@juri squared: but you always get the extra insurance RITE?

@rpm773: When you cross a bump, the tire will momentarily leave the pavement or at least is carrying less of the load of the vehicle. When this happens, the brakes will cause that wheel to slow or possibly even stop, resulting in the ABS activating.

You still have many people on the road who were taught to pump the brakes when having to rapidly come to a stop, which actually is counter-productive with a car with ABS. Even more confusing sometimes is when someone switches between vehicles on a regular basis where one does not have ABS but the other does.

@MrEvil: Very true. Old ABS systems usually worked by applying ABS to an entire axle, not just the wheel that was locking up. But like you said, since this was generally only the rear axle that operated like this. Even the early 4 wheel ABS systems had independent application for the front wheels.

@GitEmSteveDave_♥'sRenegadeIrishman: THANK YOU stevedave - I don't wear a helmet boarding and I tell my friends about this study all the time: helmet wearers ski X mph faster and are X times more likely to have a blunt force trauma than non-helmet wearers. I can't cite it right now, but I'm a patroller and read it from a credible source at the time. I can probably track it down if someone calls bull shite. I think this psychology of safety could extend to other activities.