Wednesday, July 9, 2014
The Road to Hell is Also Paved With Stupidity 5
According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, USA Today, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and Science Serving Society, those increased CAFE standards that the federal government instituted in the 1970s and then beefed up considerably in the '90s have literally caused tens of thousands of additional highway deaths and hundreds of thousands of additional injuries. The reason for this is that the easiest way for a car company to achieve these standards is to make the cars significantly lighter and when a car is lighter (your wallet ends up a little lighter, too, in that another side-effect of these increased standards is cost) it is obviously much less safe....................................................................................And it isn't even as if these increased mileage standards have saved all that much in terms of energy. The fact of the matter (and, yes, we've pretty much known this for over 150 years now - the Jevons Paradox, named after the 19th Century British economist, William Stanley Jevons) is that increased energy efficiency simply paves the way for increased energy consumption (you get better gas mileage, you take additional trips) and the end result is round about a goose egg...........................................................................................So there you have it, folks, the government once again sticking its nose in our business and this time not just costing us money but our lives as well, and all to save not even one drop of oil. Gee, thanks, assholes.
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19 comments:
Our state recently increase the weight limits for semi trucks
which has not been popular up where the cow trails pass as highways. Of course the smaller the car, the more dangerous, but
here you need an Abrams tank to
survive colliding with a ton junkie. Each axle loading on these things is equivalent to
4.5 Ford Focuses. Not only do
we have to weave around pond size potholes, but any trucker will tell you they are dead tired from the (undoubtably illegal) hours on the road. After being driven
off the icy highway by a 70 mph
semi, I contacted the US trucking
industry. "Did you get the operator's license?" Hell, I was in a pile of snow!
Would be better if the government stuck to safety regulations and actual toxic emissions.
Are you suggesting that cars are not as safe as they were 40 to 50 years ago?
My mother's 1955 Impala was significantly safer than what I'm driving now and so my answer to your question here is, yes. And it isn't me suggesting that these CAFE standards have made cars less safe. It's the Brookings Institution, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, etc., etc..............And my answer to your question, dmarks, is also, yes. Much better, I would say.
If cars were safer decades ago, how do you explain:
Between 1920 and 2000, the rate of fatal automobile accidents per vehicle-mile decreased by a factor of about 17.
And
In 1955 there were 6.06 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles travelled while in 2012 that number dropped to 1.13.
I'm not so sure your Mom's 55 was all that safe.
The Impala was made out of thick metal, Jerry (as opposed to the plastic and thin metal that my car - and most cars - are made out of today). And there are a lot of reasons for the lower fatalities; air-bags (which, yes, is a feature of the newer cars, I will give you that), better roads, seat belt enforcement, a crackdown on drunk driving, etc........And are YOU denying the research by literally every safety organization which has clearly shown that the lighter cars necessitated by these increased CAFE standards has caused tens of thousands of deaths? 'Cause that was really the point of the post, Jerry.
And, yes, the cars from 1920 were kind of dicey.
Jerry has a point. There is safety technology that makes modern cars safer.
However, modern cars would be much safer if they were larger.
We need to eliminate CAFE "standards" and now. Let the market (needs of consumers) dictate such matters. The government should stick to regulationg actual pollution and safety.
I guess you are more interested in speculation than fact. The fact is that today's cars are much safer even with the CAFE standards than the cars of the 50's.
Do you deny that fact?
Huge improvements in emergency medicine from 1920 to 2010 is undoubtedly a big reason, too.
I'm very fond of you, Jerry, but what you did here was exceedingly wd-esque. The post was specifically about CAFE standards and their impact on the safety of cars and the fact that literally every safety organization has stated that the impact is NEGATIVE, and instead of focusing on that one SPECIFIC point, you moved the goal posts/muddied the waters.......And, why, Jerry? Is it simply that you cannot fathom the possibility that your side screws up, too?
And your point is a fair one, dmarks. While, yes, I'd have a much better chance of surviving a wreck in my mother's Impala, maybe my Sentra is better at avoiding accidents through superior steering, etc..............As for the emergency medicine point, let me give you a personal example. My mother got into a serious accident a few years before she died (unrelated to the car-crash) and she was choppered into Hartford Hospital and it was this that quite probably saved her life. In 1950, she would have been transferred on the highway and probably died.
Will: Curious how a Chevy Caprice comes out on safety ratings now. Modern safety technology AND a decent proper size.
Will,
Go back and look at the comments. I asked if you were suggesting that today's cars were not as safe as cars 40 or 50 years ago. You said "My mother's 1955 Impala was significantly safer than what I'm driving now and so my answer to your question here is, yes."
I did not move the goal posts. I was simply refuting your answer to my question.
Methinks that our old friend is posting as Jerry.....
You set a trap, Jerry, and I stupidly stepped into it. I don't know if the cars of 1955 were safer than the cars of today or if it's simply the fact that policies such as seat belt enforcement and a recent crackdown on drunk driving are decreasing the deaths. And I also believe that my point on better medical interventions is a valid one (just like injuries on the battlefield are much less likely to cause death, so, too, I would think that injuries from car crashes have become less lethal).
I guess if asking a question to clarify your point is setting a trap, I must plead guilty. Are you suggesting that clarifying questions are not welcome on your blog?
Will said: "You set a trap, Jerry, and I stupidly stepped into it"
Rusty, that is proof that Jerry is most definitely not WD. WD always steps into his own traps.
The point of the post, Jerry, was not an overall analysis of road and car safety but an analysis of CAFE standards and THEIR specific impact on automobile safety (which by all accounts seems to be a negative one). And of course you can ask questions.............That's an excellent point, dmarks. Jerry is a lot more intellectually nimble than wd for sure.
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