this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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Part of the reason why you don’t lose your license for killing someone with a car in the US is because it’s much more of a ‘punishment’ because of how car dependent the US is.
Also, keep in mind a lot of trips are 3 miles or less in the US, and most drive it, despite wanting alternatives to driving.
If someone is trying to get from A to B in a 2 mile trip and the government basically mandates people to drive that, can you really blame them if they end up killing someone accidentally? What if they accidentally kill themselves smashing into a tree? You might assign some of the blame to their driving, but would that solve anything in the long term? a large part of the blame should be assigned to this insane transportation system we’ve built where everyone needs to drive 2 miles to pick up a bag of milk.
TLDR prevention, not blame will reduce traffic violence.
I think many don't use the alternatives because there are significant challenges vs using a car you're already paying for.
I'd love to bicycle but it's just not safe.
You're already paying for a car because your infrastructure demands one. I'm not in the US and get by just fine without one. Saves me a shitload of money too.
Cycling is unsafe because your infrastructure was built exclusively for cars. Your infrastructure is built exclusively for cars because most people have to use cars because your infrastructure was built exclusively for cars. It's circular reasoning.
Both of those issues are caused by infrastructure and would be solved by building slightly less stupid infrastructure.
Which is a good reason for people that want bicycle infra to vote and run for office!
Also theres the edge cases like mine where walking and biking are vastly slower than driving even though the city is somewhat walkable, because I live at one of the highest elevated roads in my city. Its a 15 min walk or a 5 min bike to places, its a 1 hr walk back and a 30 min bike back.
proper education for drivers and decent bike lanes are key. absolutely agree.