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I've often wondered how it is that we just accept as an unavoidable part of modern life the truly reckless and dangerous driving we are ALL exposed to either while driving, walking or biking.
We managed to make some changes with drunk driving where it's made a difference and people will actually step up and prevent someone from driving drunk if need be. Yet, someone can engage in road rage, dangerous, aggressive driving or driving while half asleep and we all seem to just accept it or treat it as some
unavoidable part of modern life.
How many people have driven with a co-worker or family member who is CLEARLY driving dangerously but we just bite our tongue and say nothing? I'm guilty of it myself. I intend to speak up the next time it happens though.
We lose something like 40,000 people yearly to traffic fatalities in the USA! That is more than TEN TIMES the fatalities from 9/11, EVERY SINGLE YEAR!
How is it we accept this? It barely registers as a blip on our awareness scale other than to shake our heads when we see it on the news and then go back to our business.
We HAVE the technology to put up cameras that catch people driving recklessly, I imagine they could put gps devices in cars that monitor driving like they do with commercial fleets. I hope we get to that point soon. Driving is not a birthright, it's a privilege that is dependent upon your agreement to follow the traffic laws.
I hope we get to the point were we do have self driving cars and it becomes too inefficient or maybe too expensive, insurance wise, to have as many human drivers on the roads.
If grown adults LITERALLY have to be told and reminded that it's a bad idea to play Pokemon GO or update Facebook WHILE you are driving, I'd rather have computers do it.
If grown adults think that driving 2 inches off of someone's bumper will make the traffic flow faster, I'd rather have computers coordinate traffic patterns.
But that is where we may well be heading. My post is about now and I am just wondering how it is we, as a society do not get more outraged over the number of times we or our loved ones are put in serious danger on a constant basis by people doing stupid things in cars.
I've often wondered how it is that we just accept as an unavoidable part of modern life the truly reckless and dangerous driving we are ALL exposed to either while driving, walking or biking.
We managed to make some changes with drunk driving where it's made a difference and people will actually step up and prevent someone from driving drunk if need be. Yet, someone can engage in road rage, dangerous, aggressive driving or driving while half asleep and we all seem to just accept it or treat it as some
unavoidable part of modern life.
How many people have driven with a co-worker or family member who is CLEARLY driving dangerously but we just bite our tongue and say nothing? I'm guilty of it myself. I intend to speak up the next time it happens though.
We lose something like 40,000 people yearly to traffic fatalities in the USA! That is more than TEN TIMES the fatalities from 9/11, EVERY SINGLE YEAR!
How is it we accept this? It barely registers as a blip on our awareness scale other than to shake our heads when we see it on the news and then go back to our business.
We HAVE the technology to put up cameras that catch people driving recklessly, I imagine they could put gps devices in cars that monitor driving like they do with commercial fleets. I hope we get to that point soon. Driving is not a birthright, it's a privilege that is dependent upon your agreement to follow the traffic laws.
I hope we get to the point were we do have self driving cars and it becomes too inefficient or maybe too expensive, insurance wise, to have as many human drivers on the roads.
If grown adults LITERALLY have to be told and reminded that it's a bad idea to play Pokemon GO or update Facebook WHILE you are driving, I'd rather have computers do it.
If grown adults think that driving 2 inches off of someone's bumper will make the traffic flow faster, I'd rather have computers coordinate traffic patterns.
But that is where we may well be heading. My post is about now and I am just wondering how it is we, as a society do not get more outraged over the number of times we or our loved ones are put in serious danger on a constant basis by people doing stupid things in cars.
Probably because it happens so often, and has been happening for what seems like forever, that we are all accustomed to it now, and no matter how we feel about it, we just accept that it will never change, and no amount of legislation will change things.
It's like feeling outraged that someone has parked six inches from your car door, so you have to get in via the passenger side, and slide over to the wheel, a couple of days later someone else will do it, they won't care if you're outraged or not, not good for your blood pressure.
Maybe if existing legislation was enforced it would make a difference on the roads for a while, but it would soon revert to how it is now.
Who says we don't get outraged...for all the good it does.
I can't see self-driving cars becoming a reality for most average people...who wants to be in a car that can be hacked.
I could see the gov wanting us all in them though...another way to take control of our lives.
Who says we don't get outraged...for all the good it does.
I can't see self-driving cars becoming a reality for most average people...who wants to be in a car that can be hacked.
I could see the gov wanting us all in them though...another way to take control of our lives.
If self driving cars became a 'thing' i could see a lot more people texting and "driving" more. I don't want a self-driving car though, i need to be in control of it.
Because we all like to think of ourselves as better drivers than we actually are.
Cracking down on "reckless" driving means we would all have to take a closer, more honest look in the mirror.
I've seen people be very polite, holding the door for others coming out of the supermarket and then get in their car and practically run people over in the parking lot.
Unfortunately, to the Government "Cracking down" would probably mean ticket people to death. What needs to be done is people need to take a driving test more often - maybe even an online test, especially when there is more regulation. People should be forced to know defensive driving, tested on that too. instead we have this hokey-pokey driver's license system that people find a way to cheat their way through all the time - and immigrants get a free pass (not saying they are the problem), given a license like they are handing out free candy at a halloween house (i saw that in the Bay Area of California - people who could read or speak english would have their family members take tests for them and the DMV would just give them a license.. to kill). Training people is the only way - this ticketing and penalizing people hasn't worked and never will.
I will take the opposite side of this debate: I am outraged at the OP's outrage. Our roads are already burdened by excessive "safety" practices and speed limits, which inhibit efficiency and convenience. 40,000 annual traffic deaths is tremendously and shockingly low, given the amount of person-miles driven. I'd argue further, that to die from food-poisoning, tainted drugs, medical errors, snapped elevator cables, collapsing balconies, airplane crashes, firearms accidents, kitchen accidents, industrial accidents, traffic accidents and so forth, ought to be the normal and acceptable risk of daily life. Not only is perfect security impossible, but the price and effort of attaining even a high level of security is unjustified, fatuous and wasteful. We as a society are so obsessed with insurance, that we're paying more in insurance-premiums (literally and figuratively) than is justified by the expected value of the damage against we're insuring.
Of course it's unpleasant to be harassed by a tailgating driver on the road... or to trundle behind somebody hogging the left-lane. But I'd much rather deal with either hassle, than to pay the security-tax of attempting to obviate these hassles.
Driving is more dangerous than having a gun. With a gun, you kill people but run out of ammo then it's no good. A car can kill a lot of people with ease if it's in the wrong hands.
We need public access to mass transit, there's lots of people who aren't skilled enough to drive on the road that can be fatal.
Death by auto is one of the leading causes of death besides other natural causes of death like heart attacks,
If you really want to get upset over needless deaths then look at the medical profession. Iatrogenic (of or relating to illness caused by medical examination or treatment) cause over a quarter million deaths a year, it is the 3rd leading causes of death in the United States. 1st being Heart disease, 2nd being Cancer, 3rd being Iatrogenic, according to JAMA. Kind of makes road rage seem a bit anemic. In other words, your far more likely to be killed by your doctor than suffer an accident from road rage.
We have been kept so busy chasing that dollar to eat with-- whose got time? We have own problems to solve first even though all that impacts our lives
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