[sustran] Pay as You Drive and Racism

[Sujit Patwardhan]

23 May 2004




Though this is slightly off the topic, I share Eric's views.

I believe that perception (by the one being discriminated) rather than 
evidence or proof is a more genuine yardstick to decide if racism exists.

I know this stand may not appear fair to those (from the elite community) 
who do not practice racism themselves, but as someone who has experienced 
racism (personally) I don't have faith in the approach that requires "hard 
proof" to reveal a racist act.
--
Sujit

Sujit Patwardhan
Parisar,
Yamuna,
ICS Colony,
Ganeshkhind Road,
Pune 411 007
India







At 09:55 AM 5/20/2004, you wrote:


>Eric, I think you have to be very careful about making allegations like
>that without proof. Rates of crime tend to be higher in the inner city and
>insurance costs are therefore higher. Insurance companies carefully
>examine claims histories, conduct risk analyses, assign probabilities of
>claims, and price premiums accordingly.
>
>To consider whether a racial bias exists you would need to examine the
>calculations used to generate insurance prices to determine if they
>reflected actuarial analysis correctly or if there was a statistically
>significant bias.
>
>                                     --Jonathan
>
>On Wed, 19 May 2004, Eric Bruun wrote:
>
> > Todd,
> >
> > You forgot one additional important reason for Pay as You Drive (PAYD). In
> > Philadelphia, auto insurance rates are very high. In fact, they are so high
> > that people of low or even moderate incomes can not afford both auto
> > insurance and to buy a monthly transit pass. So once they buy insurance,
> > they can no longer be persuaded to use transit. I am quite sure that 
> transit
> > use would increase significantly with PAYD in any location where insurance
> > rates are very high.
> >
> > Eric
> >
> > P.S. I think there is also a racial dimension to insurance pricing. In
> > Philadelphia, there is an automatic huge penalty for having an address in
> > the city proper, regardless of where one actually drives and the risks to
> > which one is exposed. It seems that this is proxy for a racial penalty,
> > since it is strictly illegal to use race as a basis for assessing rates.
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Todd Alexander Litman" <litman at vtpi.org>
> > To: <CONS-SPST-SPRAWL-TRANS at LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG>
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 10:21 AM
> > Subject: Pay-As-You-Drive Pricing For Insurance Affordability - Media 
> Notice
> >
> >
> > PAY-AS-YOU-DRIVE PRICING:
> > Innovative Strategy Proposed To Increase Insurance  Affordability And
> > Reduce Uninsured Driving
> >


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Sujit Patwardhan
PARISAR
"Yamuna", ICS Colony,
Ganeshkhind Road,
Pune 411007
Telephone: 255 37955
Email: <parisar81 at yahoo.co.in> or <sujit at vsnl.com>
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