
More Americans have died in car crashes since 2000 than in both World Wars - jseliger
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/more-people-died-in-car-crashes-this-century-than-in-both-world-wars/2019/07/21/0ecc0006-3f54-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html
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air7
This is an annoyingly contrived headline and article.

First of all, the "World Wars" were centered around a European /Asian
conflict. In both cases America entered the wars several years after they had
started, and fought away from home. I'm obviously not disrespecting the
"535,000 American military personnel who died in World War I and World War II"
but rather pointing out that, arguably, it's a contrived yard stick to measure
against as it _sounds_ like more of a monumental figure than it perhaps
should.

More importantly, since the year 2000 Americans have driven ~60 trillion
miles!!! To put that in perspective, the size of our solar system is ~7.5
billion miles, or _8000 times smaller_ that 60 trillion. Alpha Centauri is
"only" 25 trillion miles away. 60 trillion miles is ~10 light years...

Given that, I'm not sure 624,000 deaths, which is about 1 death per 100
million miles, is necessarily a lot.

\---

[0] [https://www.bts.gov/content/us-vehicle-
miles](https://www.bts.gov/content/us-vehicle-miles)

~~~
romwell
>More importantly, since the year 2000 Americans have driven ~60 trillion
miles!!!

..so what? That's still over _half a million_ people dead.

Here, let me put it in a slightly different light:

Critical lack of infrastructure (including public transportation) and horrific
zoning that causes ever-increasing amounts of urban sprawl has forced
Americans drive an astounding _60 trillion miles_ since year 2000, killing
over _half a million_ of them.

From what I know, most of these miles were not driven by choice: people don't
_choose_ to work 100 miles away from where they live; and most of these miles
are commute miles.

Our infrastructure (or lack thereof) is killing us by making us drive more
than anywhere else on Earth[1].

(The verbatim title of that article is: "Americans drive more than anyone else
in the world, and are dying for it" \- and _that_ is what the problem is).

[1][https://www.thecarcrashdetective.com/americans-drive-more-
dy...](https://www.thecarcrashdetective.com/americans-drive-more-dying/)

~~~
austhrow743
>..so what? That's still over half a million people dead.

..so what? Everyone dies.

The whole reason traffic deaths or war deaths or any other figure that gets
worried about is a concern isn't that people die at all. It's that they died
earlier than they otherwise would have. They missed out on life they would
have otherwise got to live. So talking about what the living get from that
increased chance of early death is clearly relevant to the discussion.

~~~
benrbray
I think you have a valid point--new technology like roads and cars will always
come with some risk. Whether or not we use the technology depends on how
comfortable we are with the risk.

However, I think there is a lot of evidence (including death statistics) that
cars are not worth the risk, compared to alternatives like trains, biking, and
walking. Cars and infrastructure to support cars is detrimental to our health,
economy, and society in ways that will take decades to correct.

------
jseliger
Somehow we continue to consider this normal, and not to do anything
substantive about it: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/was-the-
automo...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/was-the-automotive-
era-a-terrible-mistake)

~~~
bobthepanda
The Interstate system was basically a fluke; we spent so much money on it and
were willing to, and we will probably never spend so much money again. And
unfortunately we blew it on the Interstates.

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tomohawk
A large proportion of these were due to alcohol.

[http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6089353/ns/health-
addictions/t/alc...](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6089353/ns/health-
addictions/t/alcohol-linked-us-deaths-year/)

Alcohol is probably the leading cause of preventable death.

~~~
CapricornNoble
I don't understand why the US doesn't have the equivalent of "daiko service".
In Japan they have taxi/Uber services where basically 2 drivers in a small car
come pick you AND YOUR CAR up. You ride in your car as a passenger while one
guy drives your car, and other guy follows in the taxi. They drop you off at
your home with your vehicle.

Keeps DUIs manageable (but still not unheard of). Japan also has an
essentially zero-tolerance policy for alcohol consumption by drivers. The
legal limit is 0.03 BAC, which is the lowest level current devices can detect.

~~~
bobthepanda
I don’t know that Americans have thar much trust in strangers. Sounds like a
great way to get your car stolen.

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iamgopal
In India same number comes to about 3 million.

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melling
Some sort of ADAS - Advanced Driver Assist can’t get here fast enough:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_driver-
assistance_s...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_driver-
assistance_systems)

Obviously full-self driving is better but that’s going to be much harder.

