IDK about trains, but the problem with cars is that we let people operate them with minimal training and practically no oversight. You see shit on roads daily where if the driver was flying a plane, they wouldn’t even be let on as a passenger anymore ever.
We could increase the training requirements and oversight. We could design road-networks in a way that makes speeding more difficult and enact stricter speed limits.
Whenever these measures are taking in an area they greatly reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured.
We could increase the training requirements and oversight.
I wish.
And who’s going to tell all those people that they are not going to drive again, ever? In pilot training, even showing signs of bravado or machismo is grounds for getting failed. The problem is that if you do that those people will go and vote you out, especially in this climate.
One of the main campaign promises of the idiot who got the most votes in the last Dutch election was to put the speed limits back to 130 kmh from the reduced 100 kmh on motorways. People like to be dumb.
BTW it would take minimal effort to enforce highway speed limits with cameras checking entry and exit times and distances. In some places with road tolls, it wouldn’t even need any more data collection. A single SQL query would return all those people doing 100 kmh over on the motorways. Wonder why outside of a few outliers, nobody does it.
We are not talking about the inherent danger of driving, but the danger caused by people either physically or psychologically unfit to drive. The problem is not highways with speed limits of 130 kmh, but the people driving 240 on them, or the people driving drunk, running red lights, etc.
And as SUV sales show, most people are not comfortable with higher death rates for themselves, but are okay with endangering others. Ironically though, SUVs are more dangerous for their drivers as well, so apparently people are going for a perception of safety rather than actual safety even for themselves.
One big reason why mass transit is and always will be (part of) the correct answer: Don’t have to fear taking away peoples’ privelege to drive if transit it there to get them around afterward.
IDK about trains, but the problem with cars is that we let people operate them with minimal training and practically no oversight. You see shit on roads daily where if the driver was flying a plane, they wouldn’t even be let on as a passenger anymore ever.
I had a buddy from Northern Ireland take the Massachusetts driver’s test and he was blown away over how many things weren’t checked.
We could increase the training requirements and oversight. We could design road-networks in a way that makes speeding more difficult and enact stricter speed limits.
Whenever these measures are taking in an area they greatly reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured.
I wish.
And who’s going to tell all those people that they are not going to drive again, ever? In pilot training, even showing signs of bravado or machismo is grounds for getting failed. The problem is that if you do that those people will go and vote you out, especially in this climate.
One of the main campaign promises of the idiot who got the most votes in the last Dutch election was to put the speed limits back to 130 kmh from the reduced 100 kmh on motorways. People like to be dumb.
BTW it would take minimal effort to enforce highway speed limits with cameras checking entry and exit times and distances. In some places with road tolls, it wouldn’t even need any more data collection. A single SQL query would return all those people doing 100 kmh over on the motorways. Wonder why outside of a few outliers, nobody does it.
people don’t like wasting time in traffic and will happily take a slightly higher death rate to get it.
We are not talking about the inherent danger of driving, but the danger caused by people either physically or psychologically unfit to drive. The problem is not highways with speed limits of 130 kmh, but the people driving 240 on them, or the people driving drunk, running red lights, etc.
And as SUV sales show, most people are not comfortable with higher death rates for themselves, but are okay with endangering others. Ironically though, SUVs are more dangerous for their drivers as well, so apparently people are going for a perception of safety rather than actual safety even for themselves.
One big reason why mass transit is and always will be (part of) the correct answer: Don’t have to fear taking away peoples’ privelege to drive if transit it there to get them around afterward.