But that's not the important factor. On the motorway you just turn on cruise control, set it to 120/130kmh, and the car essentially drives itself. There are no crossings, curves are gentle, and everyone is driving more or less at the same speed.
On the roads you do have to watch out for a lot of things, there might be traffic lights, roundabouts, zebra crossings, the speed limit constantly changes from when you cross a town or crossroads, slow vehicles like tractors or even cyclists... So you have to pay constant attention for longer, it is tiring and a tired driver means the chances for an accident are higher.
> So you have to pay constant attention for longer, it is tiring and a tired driver means the chances for an accident are higher.
Don't disagree with that but do disagree with your line of reasoning. Driving the same speed, for hours, on cruise, makes zoning out way more easy. And at 130kmh+ things happen way faster and so you have to be extra engaged to void potentially deadly crashes.
As I said in another comment, they're less dangerous because of the way the traffic works but if you look at the numbers, the fatalities to crashes ratio isn't all that different between highways and country roads.
Volume is obviously different, but there's also fewer people driving on highways than regular roads.
Still, I'd not say that driving on highways is safe while driving on country roads is dangerous. They're both dangerous, just for different reasons.
But that's not the important factor. On the motorway you just turn on cruise control, set it to 120/130kmh, and the car essentially drives itself. There are no crossings, curves are gentle, and everyone is driving more or less at the same speed.
On the roads you do have to watch out for a lot of things, there might be traffic lights, roundabouts, zebra crossings, the speed limit constantly changes from when you cross a town or crossroads, slow vehicles like tractors or even cyclists... So you have to pay constant attention for longer, it is tiring and a tired driver means the chances for an accident are higher.