The Human Car

Part of this debate is on our definition of inherently. Does it mean naturally or innately or does it mean unavoidably. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inherently

If all this carnage is unavoidable then society goes that’s a shame but we need mobility. If we make a point that the danger is innately in the design then we have also opened the door for the acceptance of this carnage. In a recent traffic safety task force meeting a state official pointed out two European cities that have made a 50% or greater reduction in traffic fatalities. I think we are going to see more attention to the fact that traffic fatalities are avoidable in the upcoming years.

On a side note I take my daughter (now 12) to B2WD which means riding in busy rush hour downtown traffic. In previous years I got a lot of looks like how could I put my child at risk, this year we got a lot of thumbs ups. Attitudes are changing and that’s cool.

Anyway I think we are in agreement that something needs to change about society’s attitude about motorV travel and I have really enjoyed reading your posts. I think a part of the problem has been the over stress of safe crashing (bike helmets, seat belts, air bags…) over preventing accidents in the first place.

chipcom 

The reason our roads are perceived as dangerous has nothing to do with the design of the roads or vehicles that use them - it has to do with the attitudes of people who use them. This cannot be mitigated nor improved by safety features (seat belts, helmets, air bags) or laws (speed limits, etc) because people get even more looney when they think the safety features will save them from their own looniness, and ignore the laws to the point that government only makes a token effort to enforce them.

There is the dichotomy - everyone agrees the roads could be safer, until it comes down to them modifying their own behavior or being inconvenienced in an effort to do so.

The Human Car

Chipcom, I agree with you except on the point of laws. I feel the reason why laws are only marginally enforced is because of societies attitude. If you call the police about a flasher in your neighborhood you’ll get tons of attention on the problem, call about speeding in your neighborhood and you'll get excuses why they can’t deal with it. What makes flashing more of a problem to society then speeding especially since there are so few flashers? The answer to that I think is where the real problem lies.

chipcom 

The trouble is, any law that is pretty much ignored by the majority of the population is kind of hard to enforce effectively. Government and law enforcment has pretty much given up on enforcing speed limits...they just don't have the resources to stop and cite everybody, which is why you can get away with 10-25mph over on most highways. I wish they would focus more effort on speed enforcement in residential areas and non-freeway arterials - screw the freeways.

rando

you pretty much have to force people in their cars to slow down, through engineering (traffic calming), heavy enforcement (speed traps), or some other method. cops can't be everywhere. speeders are everywhere. it's a way of life for drivers. go as fast as you can get away with.

LittleBigMan

Give an inch, take a mile. When motorists do what they want, it becomes expected. We live in a culture of motoring that has no clue whatsoever that cyclists need their functional space on the road, which can often mean THE WHOLE LANE. Get over it, Little-Old-Lady-From-Pasadena. (Go Granny, go Granny, go Granny, go! )

The Human Car

Right the first step is to gain social acceptance of enforcing the laws. Maybe something like this that would be aired during prime time might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-izycNgKsyA

I agree that freeway speed limits are over enforced but it seems that the social stigma is on recklessly wasting gas over recklessly endangering lives.