• lntl@lemmy.mlEnglish
    8 days

    There are many players involved and each has a different appetite for risk and access to different controls for the risk encountered.

    Suppose for example, you’re an automobile manufacturer. Then the success of campaigns to eliminate automobiles is a risk to your business. To control that risk, you may support politicians who advocate for your interest. (IE the Ford gov in Ontario CA, there is a large base of auto mfgs in Ontario)

    On the other hand, you might be a person who needs to get to the other side of the street. In this scenario, if your appetite for risk is large enough you can don PPE and attempt a crossing or eliminate the risk completely and not cross at all.

    Supporting local advocacy groups is most effective in areas where there aren’t embedded interests like the Ontario example. In fact, most cities/regions don’t have an embedded automobile manufacturing or related base and would be well-suited to grass roots advocacy.

    • jtrek@startrek.websiteEnglish
      8 days

      Suppose for example, you’re an automobile manufacturer. Then the success of campaigns to eliminate automobiles is a risk to your business.

      We should come up with a society where people’s individual interests aren’t bad for society. Somehow. Perhaps magic?

      But yeah there’s a lot of “but I need my orphan grinding machines to sell that’s my whole business” and I don’t have a lot of sympathy, because those machines are dangerous and bad. Like, just stop selling mega-suvs or single use plastic junk or whatever. I’d be happy for the state to pay them to do something else instead.

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8 days

    I feel like you’re treating cars as the reason people wear bike helmets, and as a commuter cyclist… No?

    If cars did not exist, you should still wear a helmet. If I were in perfect visibility on a straight, guaranteed clear, brand-new concrete bike path that has nobody else on it except a first aid team trailing 200 feet behind me, I would still wear a helmet because I’m not a fucking idiot.

    And whereas it’s obviously common to recommend wearing bright colors, I don’t think I’ve ever seen helmets be the main PPE someone targets specifically for a car crash.

    • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      8 days

      Insane take. Heard this quote from a German new to the US: are all these adults wearing helmets because they’re afraid they’ll fall off?

      I wear a helmet when I’m mountain biking because there there is a risk I’ll fall off.

      I can’t remember the last time i fell off on my commute to work.

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8 days

      I used to drive with a bike hating friend and he liked the schlubs hugging the shoulder in blue jeans and no helmet. “See? That’s not a problem; he’s fine,” he’d say, “it’s the assholes with the spandex that think they own the road that I hate.”

    • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zipEnglish
      7 days

      I think the point here is that we wear helmets for reasons that have little to do with cars, but traffic safety engineers treat helmets and high-viz as the be-all, end-all of rider protection. (Because they actually don’t give a shit about safety, rather just a plausible way to blame the victims so they don’t get sued.)

  • FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8 days

    Let’s replace the hazard with !micromobility@lemmy.world! Too bad there are massive industries funding an insane fight against it.

    The assholes leading the oil and automotive industries seem to be amoral at best and have little to no regard for all the lives it costs having a car-centric society.

  • bigfish@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    8 days

    We do have administrative and engineering controls too… licenses to drive, laws, and separated highways, sidewalks etc. We’re still too far down the ladder, but you either missed this or are just trolling.

  • redballooon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7 days

    Ever since a SUV almost ran over my 4yo while the driver was looking at their smartphone instead of the red light, I insist that my family takes route 3, isolation (use the pedestrian bridge). But I have to constantly explain and reexplain myself even to my own family members.