Motorcycles aren’t viable in many places due to weather, and they aren’t practical for most people (people with kids, pets, large items, etc to transport).
I don’t think “everyone should be allowed to use the road safely” is a statement anyone disagrees with, but the laws of physics make this very difficult to implement in any practical way. Pretty sure that even in Europe, cycling and motorcycling are far more dangerous than driving.
Electric cars are the only viable, general purpose solve for climate change as it pertains to personal transit. We aren’t going to get everyone to start (motor)cycling or taking public transit over the coming decades, but EVs are a drop-in replacement for most personal transit use cases.
> I don’t think “everyone should be allowed to use the road safely” is a statement anyone disagrees with, but the laws of physics make this very difficult to implement in any practical way. Pretty sure that even in Europe, cycling and motorcycling are far more dangerous than driving.
Oh, of course we can practically implement road safety for everyone:
- limit inner-city speeds outside of major influx roads to 30 km/h
- build dedicated bicycle and bus lanes in cities
- build dedicated pedestrian lanes (not an issue in urban Europe, a bit of an issue in rural areas though)
- enforce speeding and distance-keeping regulations
- make sure the quality of the roads and pedestrian ways is acceptable (i.e. no potholes, even surface) to minimize accident risk
- keep heavy haul traffic on highways wherever possible, prevent toll evasion
- build out public transport to reduce the amount of individual traffic
- provide elderly citizens with taxi vouchers or other forms that ensure their mobility without having them drive themselves
- get old vehicles outside of historical preservation interests off the road to increase the amount of cars with up-to-date safety features
- enforce regular technical check-ups (Germany, for example, requires one every two years) so that vehicles in dangerous condition get taken off the road and owners of vehicles in barely-roadworthy condition also get the hint
Countries that prioritise safe infrastructure for bicyclists like the Netherlands fare significantly better in road accident statistics [1] over countries that just say "fuck it, cars first" like the US.
Those things improve safety, and we should certainly do them, but that’s likely not enough to bring all modes of transit into parity with regard to safety.
We can get near parity though - in the end it's probably a classic pareto distribution problem. The last 20% of traffic fatalities will be really hard, I agree, but we can reduce the utter majority of traffic accidents very very easily.
Agreed, although I think by and large we’ve already progressed a good ways into the 80%; however, the variance is huge because some jurisdictions take safety very seriously and others ignore it to the extent allowed by national law.
I don’t think “everyone should be allowed to use the road safely” is a statement anyone disagrees with, but the laws of physics make this very difficult to implement in any practical way. Pretty sure that even in Europe, cycling and motorcycling are far more dangerous than driving.
Electric cars are the only viable, general purpose solve for climate change as it pertains to personal transit. We aren’t going to get everyone to start (motor)cycling or taking public transit over the coming decades, but EVs are a drop-in replacement for most personal transit use cases.