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Thanks for the link. This moral issue is indeed really fascinating. Cars are one of the few places where we regularly accept preventable deaths as faultless ac

Thanks for the link. This moral issue is indeed really fascinating. Cars are one of the few places where we regularly accept preventable deaths as faultless accidents. Across wide swaths of the US there's an implicit assumption that if a pedestrian gets hit they somehow deserved it, or that the only people that walk or bike are people too poor to buy a car and hence undeserving of compassion or justice. Our society is so saturated with these attitudes it's a bit shocking once you see it clearly in the abstract.

ironman1478 5y ago
Yeah, it's the saddest thing. I think what sucks, is that people don't really know how much better our lives would be if we were less car dependent. There are 6 million accidents a year. That means that like at least 18 million people ar affected (gotta get that car fixed in the best case right?) each year, at a minimum (let's assume a family of one child and two parents and one of these people gets into an accident and let's assume they were crashing into just walls or something). Accidents aren't just bad for the people in the accident, but they cause financial stress and mental stress to the families affected. If we just discouraged driving by even a small percent (and thus a small fraction of accidents) so many people's lives would be better, simply due to the magnitudes as play.
matsemann 5y ago
Just read any headline after a collision and weep. For instance if a driver fails to yield and causes a cyclist to drive into it, the headline will most likely read any of: Cyclist hits car (implicitly blaming the cyclist). Car and cyclist involved in accident (an accident, nothing anyone could do, nothing to learn here). Cyclist hurt after car failed to yield (at least getting the story straight, but still the driver isn't mentioned, as if the car is acting on its own and the driver is a passive innocent person). Cyclist hit by car (no, again it's making the active part passive, it should read Car hits cyclist if so). https://www.camcycle.org.uk/magazine/newsletter110/article8/ https://www.camcycle.org.uk/magazine/newsletter110/article8/
- jasonwatkinspdx 5y ago
  Yeah, 100% this. There was a local incident here where a driver intentionally drove his car into someone walking to a protest, and our big paper (owned and operated out of Orange county) wrote it up using the whole passive voice and accident headline. It was attempted murder and they still did that nonsense.

ironman1478 5y ago

Yeah, it's the saddest thing. I think what sucks, is that people don't really know how much better our lives would be if we were less car dependent. There are 6 million accidents a year. That means that like at least 18 million people ar affected (gotta get that car fixed in the best case right?) each year, at a minimum (let's assume a family of one child and two parents and one of these people gets into an accident and let's assume they were crashing into just walls or something). Accidents aren't just bad for the people in the accident, but they cause financial stress and mental stress to the families affected. If we just discouraged driving by even a small percent (and thus a small fraction of accidents) so many people's lives would be better, simply due to the magnitudes as play.

matsemann 5y ago

Just read any headline after a collision and weep. For instance if a driver fails to yield and causes a cyclist to drive into it, the headline will most likely read any of: Cyclist hits car (implicitly blaming the cyclist). Car and cyclist involved in accident (an accident, nothing anyone could do, nothing to learn here). Cyclist hurt after car failed to yield (at least getting the story straight, but still the driver isn't mentioned, as if the car is acting on its own and the driver is a passive innocent person). Cyclist hit by car (no, again it's making the active part passive, it should read Car hits cyclist if so). https://www.camcycle.org.uk/magazine/newsletter110/article8/ https://www.camcycle.org.uk/magazine/newsletter110/article8/

jasonwatkinspdx 5y ago
Yeah, 100% this. There was a local incident here where a driver intentionally drove his car into someone walking to a protest, and our big paper (owned and operated out of Orange county) wrote it up using the whole passive voice and accident headline. It was attempted murder and they still did that nonsense.