I think this has much more to do with the fact that people drive cars and not airplanes. Most people have confidence in themselves and not others (cf. George Ca

I think this has much more to do with the fact that people drive cars and not airplanes. Most people have confidence in themselves and not others (cf. George Carlin's joke: "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?"). So they're happy to make things safer if those changes only affect other people (as in an airplane). But when it comes to the fixes that would do the most to reduce traffic fatalities (e.g., lower speed limits on non-highways, more speed cameras, or perhaps most pertinently technology in cars that would make it more difficult to speed, etc.), those affect you too.