North Carolina Cyclist Mayhem

[dkel]

@DismalScientist 135658 wrote:

Well, I certainly appreciated the high speed pass on the 14th Street Bridge by two Freds on their fancy road bikes with brifters this morning. The oncoming pedestrian, not so much.

Brifters. Sheesh! :rolleyes:

[PotomacCyclist]

I’ve seen plenty of reckless people in every mode of transportation, including drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. (I see plenty of people who jaywalk by stepping suddenly into high-speed traffic, for example.) But the fact is that car driving is the mode that presents the most danger to everyone on the roads, and that danger extends to drivers themselves. Most of the now 38,000 annual traffic fatalities are drivers.

Road deaths increased to 38,300 in 2015, from 35,236 in 2014. I had been citing 33,000 as the number of annual traffic/road fatalities in the U.S. but that’s far too low a figure now, unfortunately. That also means 105 Americans die each and every day, on average, in or because of cars. I had previously been saying 90 American deaths a day. It’s getting worse. I have no idea why that doesn’t shock and outrage more people. If 100 more Americans died over an entire year because of terrorism or food poisoning or Ebola, you would have near riots and maybe even concentration camps these days. There is one death on Metro over a six-year period and people go around calling it a disaster and a death trap. Really? (Someone dies on the roads in the D.C. region every couple days or so, every week of the year. Why don’t people consider that a death trap? Or at least a danger zone?)

But 5,000 more annual road deaths, compared to just a couple years ago? Barely a reaction from many. It’s almost as if they consider it collateral damage or acceptable losses, like they are playing a video game or waging war on any American civilians who happen to get in their way. When attempts are made to lower the death toll, some will scream and wail about a “war on cars.”

[jabberwocky]

@PotomacCyclist 135675 wrote:

Road deaths increased to 38,300 in 2015, from 35,236 in 2014. I had been citing 33,000 as the number of annual traffic/road fatalities in the U.S. but that’s far too low a figure now, unfortunately. That also means 105 Americans die each and every day, on average, in or because of cars.

The really sad part is that cars themselves have been getting safer and safer every year. A 2016 car is so far beyond a 1996 car when it comes to safety of the people inside its not even funny (and compared to a 1976 car there is just no comparison).

We’ve made the cars safer while pretty much totally ignoring the driver inside.

[huskerdont]

@jabberwocky 135700 wrote:

We’ve made the cars safer while pretty much totally ignoring the driver inside.

And the person that driver runs into.

[Author]

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