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Still, I think the age has something to do with it. The death rate for motorcycles is 24 times higher than that for cars but we would never allow a car missing
by causality0 6y ago
Still, I think the age has something to do with it. The death rate for motorcycles is 24 times higher than that for cars but we would never allow a car missing enough safety features to be comparably dangerous on the road. You couldn't get regulators and the public to accept, say, 80 mile per hour electric rollerblades even if you could demonstrate they were just as safe as motorcycles.
- lisper 6y ago> Still, I think the age has something to do with it. No, it's the externalities. When you fly you don't just put yourself at risk, you put others at risk as well. Roads are designed to isolate faster-moving vehicles from people and property so the people who die are mostly the occupants of the vehicles and there is not much collateral damage. But it's not possible to isolate air traffic this way. So it's not just the occupants of aircraft who die, it's people sitting in their living rooms watching TV when a plane suddenly comes crashing through their roof. Also, the limiting factor on air travel is not technology, it's takeoff and landing space. Even VTOL aircraft need a lot more room to takeoff and land than a car does because there's a blast zone.