>  Let's ask this in another way:
>
>  How long would you be ready to be stuck in traffic if it means that one
> life is saved because of the wait?

That depends on how much I value life, and how much my time is worth.  It 
will be different for every person, but if you average it over 60 million 
people you'll get a figure.  Assume I value life at $1m, and I earn $100k a 
year - that means I would be willing to wait 10 years in a jam to save a 
life.

>  Also, you assume that traffic accidents are cheaper for the government
> than having to re-pave once in a while. Do you have any hard numbers on 
> this?

No, but you can do some simple estimates.  It's going to depend on many 
factors like how often it is snowy, how many roads you have, and how much 
traffic there is.  The numbers for a country like Finland are going to be 
totally different than somewhere like the UK.  Also don't forget that 
repaving creates traffic jams just the same way that accidents do, plus they 
actually cost the government financially (accidents don't).

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