The argument about how 'masks don't work' because they don't protect the wearer v 'masks have to be mandatory' because your mask protects everyone around you - got me thinking about a long running issue with auto safety.
Our system is set up to focus entirely on the safety of the passengers in a car with almost no concern for the passengers of the cars around them.
This results in vastly more traffic fatalities than we should have. People buy SUVs and other big heavy vehicles 'because they are safe' but these vehicles kill several additional passengers in the cars around them for every one of their own passenger's lives that they save.
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api...ication/813152
p6 money quotes:
When a passenger car and a light truck hit head-on, an
occupant was 2.9 to 3.7 times more frequently killed in
the passenger car than in the light truck. In 2019 the ratio
was 2.9.
When the front of a passenger car hit the side of a light
truck, an occupant was 1.3 to 1.7 times more frequently
killed in the light truck than in the passenger car. In 2019
the ratio was 1.6.
However, when the front of a light truck hit the side of a
passenger car, an occupant was 13.3 to 22.7 times more
frequently killed in the passenger car than in the light truck.
In 2019 the ratio was 19.8.
Any suggestions on how we could change our rules to reduce this public safety scourge?
For scale, traffic fatalities are a bit more than 20k a year - a bit more than homicides with guns...
https://health.ucdavis.edu/what-you-can-do/facts.html
(Note - my intent is for this to focus on the auto issue - the gun issue would surely devolve into forbidden political territory immediately, but I dont think that there is as much risk of that with the auto issue...)