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by SpicyLemonZest 2251 days ago
We take reasonable, targeted measures to mitigate the risks. What we don't do is embark on a grand social program to eradicate freeway crashes, because such a program would involve banning or heavily restricting cars and we feel cars are too important for that.
3 comments

The car/cancer/heart-disease analogies are inherently flawed because they're not communicable. If my road rage started a chain reaction across the Interstate causing 45K people to die in a month, I think we'd stop driving until we figured out what was going on.
But we do just that.

Every car has to pass a bunch of certifications to be legal to drive on the road. It has to pass a (4-, 2- or 1-)yearly checkup, has to be registered, insurance has to be paid, road tax, etc. Also the driver has to pass a theoretical and a practical exam, has to be of certain age, not be under influence of any of many substances, has to obey a bunch of traffic laws, etc. And we also have check for all that, from police controls, to speed cameras, alco-testers, etc.

Eliminating traffic deaths isn’t a totally unrealistic goal.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/oslo-traffic...