3 ms·
Interesting you should bring that up. That was used as an example of unintended side effects of policy in my economics class, because when people started wearin
by thayne 4y ago
Interesting you should bring that up. That was used as an example of unintended side effects of policy in my economics class, because when people started wearing seat belts, they drove faster and more recklessly, so while the seatbelts protected people inside the cars, the number of pedestrians hit by cars went up.
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation
- mcguire 4y agoHmm. Most states brought on mandatory seat belt laws in the mid-1980s--mid-1990s. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_laws_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_laws_in_the_United_S...) 1981 was the last year with motor vehicle fatalities over 3.0 per billion miles. By 2000 it was 1.53 and 2019 it was 1.10. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in...) I can only find pedestrian fatality numbers from 1994. (https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/pedestrians/data-details/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/pedestr...) It decreased from 5584 in 1995 to 4109 in 2009 and increased to 6272 in 2019. In 1995, there were 2,423 billion vehicle miles traveled; in 2009, 2,957; in 2019, 3,248. Doing the division, that works out to 2.3 pedestrian deaths / BVMT in 1995; 1.4 in 2009, and 1.9 in 2019. Interesting.
- jeromegv 4y agoRegarding pedestrian death: Size/weight of car have also dramatically increased.
- ted_dunning 4y agoI take it you didn't actually read that wikipedia page. It says that the supposed Peltzman effect for seat belts didn't pan out.