I called out Americans specifically because the author of the post dealt specifically with Americans. As for backing up the claim that average driving isn't sa

I called out Americans specifically because the author of the post dealt specifically with Americans. As for backing up the claim that average driving isn't safe: average driving is, by definition, how people in general drive. How people in general drive causes something like 30k fatal accidents a year. For comparison, there were zero U.S. airline fatalities in 2010. I've pulled stats before (I can dig for them if you want) that show that public ground transportation has something like a tenth the deaths of personal cars. The amount of needless deaths in the U.S. can probably be reduced by about 27k a year by improving transport safety. I think that's worth trying for. (I will agree that it is possible that all or most traffic accidents are caused by a small fraction of drivers, which would basically nullify my point about average drivers, but I have never seen any reports to this effect.) Removing drivers removes a source of revenue but charging more for a license adds one. Public transportation also adds a source of revenue at the same time as it adds costs (ideally the system would eventually break even). I'm not saying I've run the numbers. The point is just that public transportation isn't just a money sink. It's also a source.