Cars, Cars everywhere and not a safe one around.

OK, this is my first official rant. As you can surmise from the title this is about automobiles and the lack of safety.

Some 40,000 people a year die on the roads, and yet we seem to take it for granted, like it's OK or something. Yes, we all have places to go, and my beef is not with the fact that people drive, but with the fact there are so many things that can be done to increase motorist safety that are not being done.

One is money. We spend many tens of billions of dollars on the war against terrorism (including the war in Iraq and Afghanistan), yet you have a better chance of suffocating in bed then dying in a terrorist attack. Granted, if we had done nothing after 9/11 then there may have been a couple of more terrorist attacks, but look at this, how many lives have been lost in terrorist attacks versus car accidents? Let's see, over the last seven years approximately 280,000 people have died in car accidents and only a relatively few private American citizens have died in terrorist attacks, all on foreign soil. Even if we had done nothing since 9/11, then what would it be? 2,000, 3,000? Still a paltry number when compared to car accidents. I am not trying to marginalize the devastating effect of terrorist attacks here, but let me put it this way; if you have x amount of dollars to spend, and if you spend it on preventing terrorist attacks you might save 1,000 lives total and if you spend it on preventing car accidents, you could maybe save 10,000 lives a year. Of course I'm just using these numbers as a possible example, but you get the idea.

My next part on car accidents is with public perception. For almost all of us, DRIVING IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ACTIVITY YOU WILL EVER PERFORM. Want me to say it again? DRIVING IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ACTIVITY YOU WILL EVER PERFORM. So take is seriously, it is not a game, you can die a horrible death. Pay attention when you drive, do not drive drunk, under the influence, or too tired. Do not talk on your cell phone, put on makeup, or shave, or eat. Do not fight with the kids in the back or reach onto the floor board, do not drive with your knees. It takes all of 2 SECONDS OF DISTRACTION TO CAUSE AN ACCIDENT. Do not weave in and out of traffic, tail gate or speed excessively or cut people off. Most of all, drive less, it can save your life. Enough said.

Now on driving less. We are partly to blame on the amount of driving we have to do and city planners and local governments are partly to blame. With the advent of the car, everyone wanted to move out to suburbia to live the American dream, with a yard, a dog and 2.6 kids. All this housing out and away from the city forced us to driving to run errands, get to work, go to school etc. The city planners, politicians, and builders gave it to us, which in general they should, but in retrospect there may be better ways. With decentralized, spread out cities, walking, biking and public transportation simply become ineffective. It might very well be a better idea to plan and build cities for first walking, then biking, the public transportation, then cars. Not only would this save lives, but it would conserve fuel, reduce pollution and potentially reduce the obesity epidemic.

On to driving privileges. Yes, driving is a privilege, not a right. That is why you must show you are minimally competent before receiving your license. Driving is also a potentially deadly activity. One simple mistake and somebody could die. Penalties for mistakes should be much more severe. When someone drives drunk, it should be a year in jail, no questions asked. Driving drunk is the equivalent of being drunk and waving a loaded pistol around a bunch of people. Second drunk driving penalty should be five years in jail and life suspension of your license. Strict penalties do help to deter people from bad activity. The other group this pertains to are young drivers. As a group 16-24 year old's cause more accidents then anyone else. Many states have started a driving restriction program, such as not driving at night, for the first year of driving. These programs work. I think they should be stricter, such as only 7 points allowed for 16-24 year old's on a license before it is taken away instead of the normal 12 (in NC). Also, the driving test should be more rigorous, especially the driving portion. I remember when I received by license, all I had to do was go out of the parking log, make a three point turn, then come back.

I still have not addressed potential uses of the money that might be diverted from the war on terror. One is road improvement. Another is new technologies for auto safety, such as a warning system when you are coming up on a red traffic light too quickly. Perhaps more speeding cameras and traffic light cameras to keep people honest. More public transportation could be installed. But the biggest improvement would be cars that drive themselves, yes you heard me right. For those of you that have not heard of the DARPA challenge, 6 cars successfully navigates 120 miles of desert, through tunnels and dodging rocks, holes, etc., entirely on their own, no driver or remote control. Then there was the DARPA Urban Challenge where again six robotic cars successfully navigated through an urban environment on their own. No, it's not ready for prime time, but this demonstrates the potential. I think with enough funding, autonomous vehicles could be ready within 10 years. Now before you go off and say "I don't want no computer controlling my car" then let me put it to you this way, do you want you or someone you know to die in a car accident in your lifetime or not? Because the way things are currently, probably someone will. With properly developed and tested automated vehicles, the number of accidents would probably approach a small number, like a few thousand as opposed to the hundreds of thousands of accidents that occur every year now. Also computers do not get drunk, tired or distracted. They do not get road rage. They also can drive more efficiently, reducing traffic congestion.

So now you have it, my thoughts and opinions on the state of autos. Hope you got something out of it.