About 3000 people died from a terrorist attack in 2001. The response was a rapid and dramatic overhaul of national security. Not to even mention an entire unnecessary war that killed even more people.
40,000 people die from cars every year in just one country, and the response is to carry on like that's just fine.
All I ask is for the resources allocated solving problems to be allocated reasonably proportionally to the size of the problem.
> All I ask is for the resources allocated solving problems to be allocated reasonably proportionally to the size of the problem.
Sure, I can agree to this. However it requires you to admit grandma getting run over by Santa’s Ford F-150 isn’t as pressing of a matter as drug overdoses (~110,000/yr), or obesity (~300,000/yr), let alone smoking (~500,000/yr), and that the amount of money required to reduce car fatalities, particularly in already developed cities, makes it prohibitively difficult of a sell. It’s not as simple as selling smaller cars, it requires vast reworking of road infrastructure and understanding of safety.
Heart disease is number one. Cancer is 2. Accidents 3. Stroke 5. Four of the top 5 have some link to cars.
How much heart disease, stroke, or obesity, is caused by people driving everywhere instead of walking or biking?
How many deaths from slow ambulance response times? Cars allow suburbs to exist where people live far away from hospitals. People in cities have traffic. If people lived in densely populated places without cars and traffic, faster emergency response times would save many.
How much heart disease and cancer is caused by the air pollution from fossil fuel burning cars? How many deaths are caused by the natural disasters resulting from the climate impact of cars? Even electric cars are polluting the air with their tires, even moreso than fossil fuel cars do.
How much heart disease or strokes are caused by the noise pollution from cars?
How much heart disease or strokes are caused by the stress people experience while they drive and/or sit in traffic?
Cars are a major root cause of a lot of our public health problems. Not only do they violently kill people directly in vast numbers, they don’t get credit for all the deaths they contribute to indirectly.
We should dramatically redesign our transportation infrastructure so that people do not need cars. Reduce car usage to the point where they are only used when absolutely necessary. This will solve not just one, but several public health problems.
You are genuinely unwell, I suggest seeking professional help if you believe cars are the single root cause of problems in the world. 5 of the top 5 are also related to cellphones (obesity is increased by spending all day on technology, RF is possibly carcinogenic according to the IARC, accidents in tech happen daily that kill people, lights can induce stroke, and Big Tech demand WFH positions come into contact with COVID-19 via forced in-office days) and yet I don’t hear you complaining, despite the objective reality that cellphones are related to more death than even cars, and are even the root cause of most “violent” auto accidents.
Lots of resources are allocated to car safety, and have been since the first cars were built. Some deaths are inevitable. Cars are safer than ever. This whole issue is a manufactured crisis. As a society we have considered cars necessary and relatively safe for like a hundred years. You are more likely to die from diabetes or some other chronic illness than a car accident.
As for comparing car accidents to 9/11, you ought to know better. I don't even think it's worth my time to shred that argument.
About 3000 people died from a terrorist attack in 2001. The response was a rapid and dramatic overhaul of national security. Not to even mention an entire unnecessary war that killed even more people.
40,000 people die from cars every year in just one country, and the response is to carry on like that's just fine.
All I ask is for the resources allocated solving problems to be allocated reasonably proportionally to the size of the problem.