At least in the US. Hopefully other countries do better.
According to NHTSA numbers, New Years Day (and New Years Eve) are no longer in the top 10 most deadly holidays for drunk driving fatalities, or driving fatalities generally. Strong police presence and strict DUI enforcement has done a lot to cut down on the loss of life in this particular case.
Canada does not do better. We are really good at blaming the victim and allowing drunk drivers to be repeat offenders. Shit, where I moved away from there were people lobbying to increase the legal BH limit.
This is why driving should be by profession only and very regulated IMO.
Any other heavy machinery generally needs a license and regular recertification that requires you to basically take the test again. And anywhere you’d be operating generally has other people who have also undergone their own safety trsining. But giant 1-ton metal machines that go on public roads co-occupied by random pedestrians? Just come round every so often so we can give you a new ID.
Exactly, it’s insane how we allow people- even literal children- to operate heavy machinery that kills thousands every year with only a basic understanding and minimal experience.
Not only that, but the most common area to train in is the very same roads everyone is using. There are no facilities where you can go and learn under controlled conditions and supervison, for most people you near the end of your teens and an adult gives you some keys after you past a written exam.
Well, depending on your location. In the North East U.S. you definitely can take a professional driving course. There is a program called “In Control: Crash prevention”.
I first took that class as an EMT through my ambulance job. But, it is open to the public. I brought my 17 y/o son to the class shortly after he got his license.
Yes these services exist, but they are not required to get a lisence, and that is part of the problem, there is no centralized regulatory body controlling the training drivers recieve if any.
Fair point. That level of class that we took should be required.
dude, .04 is a joke and an excuse for police to harass. MADD ceased being about safety and has been money generation for decades now. This all has been a classic case of imposing new laws instead of simply enforcing the old ones, like gun control and some other things i can think of.
The legal limit is .08 in most places. It should be 0. There should be no alcohol in anyone’s blood stream when they are driving, no exceptions.
You’re as poorly informed as you are clever.
Because I don’t think people should be allowed to drive drunk?
Neither do I, but that’s not the point you’ve been making. You’re still poorly informed on the laws, spreading misinformation mixed with what you want things to be
How am I spreading misinformation? Generally speaking the legal limit is .08 in Canada.
.04 is the general rule now, and this is not uncommon knowledge.
Yup it’s rampant here, thinking I might move to Montreal.
Speeding, drunk driving, lack of transit options, lack of enforcement… All preventable factors
These deaths are not accidents
My ex’s mom never stopped driving when she developed a medical condition that has her randomly passing out multiple times a day. She never stopped, the doctor never took it, and the inevitable happened.
She passed out, killed a pedestrian. Did like 2.5 years and ~6 Mo of that was time served IIRC.
Motorists aren’t REALLY punished for crimes, and pedestrian murder is just victim blaming advertising for car ownership “if they hadn’t been on their bike they would have survived” “that’s what you get for walking on the side of the road”
Sounds like she was punished to me.
You lose a loved one then come tell me if you think two years is fair for murder.
Or does your defense of driving at all costs mean more to you than your family?
The justice system isn’t about revenge.
War famine disease these are all preventable!
Everything bad that happens to anyone is because someone decided to have sex a few decades ago. So really, there are no accidents whatsoever
So many accidents in Romania could be avoided if freight trucks were on rail, but now freight rail is garbage and nobody says anything
How would you get freight to places other than train stations?
To these places the only option would be (maybe smaller) trucks, from the station. I am not talking about in city transport, but about transport between cities, or even internationally
I’ll never forget one of the dumbest things I’ve heard. Person in charge of the “orientation meeting” for exchange students at UCSB said with a straight face to the group of about 30 foreigners:
It’s important that you don’t drink and driver, as you can get a big fine.
Are you sure that’s the reason?
Living in Norway, It’s been 15 years since I heard of someone I know, know someone who drunk drove. Likely a very different experience in other social circles, or other parts of the country (coughFinnmarkcough) , but I would say it’s definitely a cultural difference.
Please elaborate on how nothing has been done?
What should be done about it?
I know there are some obvious answers on there and really im for anything that has less cars.
But “what should be done about it?” If someone ran a political party of “fuckcars” and got into power what would the ideal solutions be?
It’s easy to say more rail but that isn’t enough to make change.
Some politician saying " I want a highway through that black neighbourhood" was enough to evict countless people, destroy their homes, divide communities, and create urban freeways. We could certainly do the same with public transit but without the racism, just take the space from the cars this time.
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Okay but how.
Is it just the case of huge spending in cities? Flatten a big line across the city to run a new train line? Then flatten big areas around the stations for 15 mins cities. Could land value the tax around the station but then you lose the central planning on that 15 minute city.
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I don’t know why you are giving me attitude. I’m even on your side. No wonder you have such a bad reputation and no one listens to you, people like you giving the movement a bad name.
Look most cities had streets in them before the car. Most major streets have been there for over 100 years so they aren’t new. My city and the larger cities near me have one lane in each direction for a major roads. There is no space to add a train line there and being realistic they are not going to remove the only road between a major area of the city and its downtown.
So what’s the realistic solution? To make a new street. That would require buying housing and destroying them, or building an underground which costs even more. Having said that even if you did take out the road and put rail in it wouldn’t work. The streets are too windy and too steep.
There is no.metion of how to get new estates built around the car onto public transport either. They aren’t dense enough.
I think it’s a valid question to ask how this would be achieved. You can scream into the void all you like about cars being the wrong answer but to actually make changes and transition is a different matter.
Yes places that have 4 lanes you can reduce it. But that’s not going to remove cars entirely. Just remove them from that one road. That’s not enough.
Also looking at the past isn’t entirely fair. It was a lot easier to make people sell their house for the greater good than it is now.
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This has more to do with idiots.
No one thinks they’re the idiot, but idiots exist. Which are you?
