http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/do-we-tolerate-too-many-traffic-deaths/
To get an idea of how screwed up our priorities are here are a couple good quotes.
To get an idea of the scale of the enormous toll from traffic crashes, imagine that, every month, we lost nearly the same number of people who were killed on 9/11.
Let us not forget, however, that over the past 25 years, more than one million men, women and children died in traffic crashes in this country. If we had lost this many people to war or famine, Americans would be demanding swift action.
A couple of weeks ago BIKESNOBNYC posted this. One can only wonder at the higher level of aggressiveness that the study would have encountered if this was done in the U.S. (It's towards the end of the 05-13-10 post).
http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2010/05/ride-to-work-work-to-ride-living-dream.html
All of these people are on the wrong track. All of the safety features for the driver should just be eliminated from cars - no airbags, no seatbelts, no collapsing steering column, no side door beams. Keep everything for the passengers. All those features have just raised the bar for crappy driving habits and made everyone outside the car less safe. Cheap, cost effective, see how everyone drives when they know what an accident will cost them.
Semi-truck drivers should actually get a sharply pointed steering column and a glass vial of nitroglycerin below the seat.
Agree with edmonds. Just hypothetical, if cars exploded upon impact of anything at more than 5mph. I'll bet you would see people A. driving much slower and B. actually paying attention to what they were doing.
or c. not driving at all.
i brought up or encouraged discussion on this point in the harts run death thread. it's easy to forget how many people die each year in traffic deaths, since they all happen separately and how everyone thinks they're a better driver. then again, i doubt many people have even a clue how many people die. and even less about injuries.
it should be treated like a public health problem, because it is. billions of dollars are spent on accidents, why can't we instead spend a few million on prevention?
Yeah. We are doing the opposite. Requiring helmets, airbags and seat belts and not making the streets safer. It's like football and hockey. As the pads get bigger so do the hits.
Yeesh... What would Naders Raiders think of you'inz?
All these safety features exist because of consumer advocacy. Punishing the operator by lobbying for fewer safety features will not change the way Americans navigate their lives.
Any of these new laws regarding distracted driving will be just as ineffective as existing law. As often as they are enforced, we'd be better off with ridiculously high fines based on a function of personal income and impounding the vehicle. I've never heard of a person killing another by driving their suspended license into them - take away the car.
In my opinion, the appropriate response to the 35,000+ yearly US traffic deaths would be draconian enforcement and peanalties for traffic violations.
Sloaps is right about taking away the car. Even a slight chance of having to call a friend to pick you up because you were going 20 miles over the speed limit, violated an occupied crosswalk, or cruised through a red light would change things.
Realisticly? In a democratic society, it won't happen until bike trips are well over 10% of all trffic trips.
Even then, we can expect serious rage if the Ebil Gubment starts taking away cars when bike-riding liberals whine over silly stuff like being killed.
I was only being partly facetious talking about eliminating safety features from cars. As far as safety being driven by consumer advocacy, I think it's completely misguided. Adding safety features to protect the OCCUPANTS is a total red herring, since the vast majority of auto fatalities and deaths occur due to driver error, not mechanical failures, and it only feeds the manufacurers battle to sell more cars. Plus it drives the point at which a stupid mistake becomes fatal to a much higher level.
But, no-one ever sold a car to someone by telling them "listen, this is a dangerous device, and you need much more training than a few hours in high school to operate this thing safely". Except Porsche.
This probably isn't a great place to admit this, but I am also a driving enthusiast, I take it VERY seriously, and I believe 90% of the people out there should not have licenses. It needs to be much, much harder to get and keep a driving license. Much. By their nature, punitive fines, suspensions, etc only treat the problem after the bad shit has already happened.
