[sustran] Re: a bias against drivers?

[Dinesh Mohan]

It appears there is nothing called a "family" in this discussion. There must be some
car owning families out there where the number of licensed drivers is greater than
the number of cars a family owns. What do the others do if one family member takes
the car out?

Dinesh Mohan

eric.britton at ecoplan.org wrote:

> I claim, based on nothing more than personal observation, intermittent study of
> various categories of related statistics in a number of countries and driving
> habitats, and my basic sense of smell in this matters after quite a number of
> years of work in the field as a consultant and advisor to government and
> industry, that a significant MAJORITY of people in most places do not have FAIR
> AND REASONABLE ACCESS to autos as drivers.
>
> In addition to the other categories that have been brought up in these
> discussions (many elderly, handicapped, all children, etc., but also including
> those who really cannot afford to own and operate their own cars in any
> reasonable scheme of things), there are also all those who really are not
> physically or psychologically competent to master the complexities of either
> high speed freeway driving nor that twisting and turning of crowded city
> streets.
>
> My own quick first guess on this last category is that something on the order of
> one licensed driver in two should not be out on the road.  Being a good and safe
> driver is a very complicated, demanding business and is not just a matter of
> snuggling behind the wheel and letting the automatic transmission and power
> assisted steering compensate for your own motor in adequacies.  To put this into
> perspective, I would like to share with you the first short paragraph that the
> investigative reporter Malcolm Gladwell opens a thought provoking investigative
> article in the New Yorker of 8 June under the title of "Wrong Turn: How the
> fight to make America's highways safe went off course".
>
> "Every two miles the average driver makes four hundred observations, forty
> decisions, and one mistake.  Once ever five hundred miles, one of these mistakes
> leads to a near collision, and once every sixty-one thousand miles one of those
> mistakes leads to a crash.  When people driver, in other words, mistakes are
> endemic and accidents inevitable."
>
> And this is an "average driver".  I do not have at hand what the numbers look
> like for those over 65, those who are tired or not feeling all that well,
> teenagers, smokers, people with mobile phones in hand, under medication (or who
> should be), those with visual or flexibility problems, and the list goes on.
>
> There are plenty of numbers out there that help make this point, but the bottom
> line is that, given who we are, the idea of creating a society where the main
> mobility option is the private car is a quite mad, unfair and dangerous one.
> The proper place for the car is as a second-tier mobility option for those for
> whom it does the job fairly, safely and well.  But that is a small minority, and
> not the majority.
>
> Once we have realized this and started taking it into account in both our
> policies and investments in the sector, we will be on the road to
> sustainability.
>
> Comments?
>
> Eric Britton
>
> The @New Mobility Forum is permanently at http://newmobility.org
> The Commons ___Sustainable Development and Social Justice___
> Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
> Eric.Britton at NewMobility.org    Tel: +331 4326 1323



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Dinesh Mohan
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