4 ms·
Thats like saying you'd never drive with someone who uses a seatbelt because wearing one means they don't "believe" in their ability to drive safely.
by tqi 6y ago
Thats like saying you'd never drive with someone who uses a seatbelt because wearing one means they don't "believe" in their ability to drive safely.
- gnicholas 6y agoInterestingly, pedestrian injuries went up significantly after seatbelt laws, for the reason you note/deride.
- tqi 6y agoThat doesn't sound right... seatbelt laws forced people who otherwise would have felt confident enough to drive without it to wear one. Low confidence drivers always had the option to wear one at any time. From only study I could find on the subject [1]: "We distinguish, following the literature, between fatalities among car occupants, who may be directly affected by using seat belts, and fatalities among nonoccupants (pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists), who do not use seat belts and can thus be affected by seat belt use only indirectly... Our findings indicate that seat belt use significantly reduces fatalities among car occupants, but does not appear to have any statistically significant effect on fatalities among non-occupants. Thus, we do not find significant evidence for compensating behavior." Maybe the invention of seat belts could have that effect, but that coincided with so many other changes to automobile technology / urban development that any observed effects are correlated at best. [1] https://web.stanford.edu/~leinav/pubs/RESTAT2003.pdf https://web.stanford.edu/~leinav/pubs/RESTAT2003.pdf
- gnicholas 6y agoA more recent study seems to indicate otherwise. I have no idea which study is better designed. https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v44y2015icp58-64.html https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v44y2015icp58-64.html
- nmfisher 6y ago> Interestingly, pedestrian injuries went up significantly after seatbelt laws, for the reason you note/deride. Source?