Safety, like everything else, exists on a spectrum of appropriateness. On one end is recklessness, in the middle is prudence, and on the other end is cowardice.
I think that we are, at this time, on the cowardice end. And pushing the envelope.
Everyone is different, but I suspect it’s easy to think cars are too safe, as long as a loved one doesn’t have an accident where a safety feature would have saved a life. Then the conversation changes.
Good discussion - even the eat glass part!
I once saw a sign that was from the 1930’s. It read: THE BEST SAFETY DEVICE IS A CAREFUL MAN.
Truer words have never been said. Every now and then I talk with someone who thinks it’s strange that after 25 years as a mechanic I have all my fingers, no scars, in fact no work-related injuries or physical ailments at all. I just answer it’s easy…watch what you’re doing, watch what’s happening around you, know your equipment, and be careful.
I think the same can be said for driving cars. I don’t propose going back to the days before seat belts and safety glass, but the “cocoon” that many people feel they have around them since the cars have safety features up the ying-yang means that people either don’t know or don’t care how to properly drive a car.
Cars need to be made safer. The single best safety item would be a mechanism that activated a car’s flashers whenever a cell phone was making a call or texting from within the car that wasn’t part of the Bluetooth system. Then least then you could see "them"
coming or going and have a fighting chance.
Cars have probably been safe enough for about 30 years now.
30 years now
30?? - No way. Maybe 10 years on some vehicles…and as long as 20 on others. Vehicles are doing much better on crash tests in the past 10 years then 30 years ago. Almost any SUV built 30 years…a driver would have serious injuries in a 30mph crash. Almost all will survive with minor injuries now. And lets not forget side impact. That was almost completely ignored 30 years ago.
Every five to ten years there is a safety device that we wonder how we could ever live without. Now. maybe if you use your car on a camp road or Isle Au Haut and have confined and very slow driving, sure, anything in the last 50 years let alone 30 years will do. But, if you live where everyone else is texting, you need all the help you can get to survive.
The fatality rate in '83 (deaths/100,000 miles) was about twice what it is now. Just as safe in '83? I don’t think so…
The fatality rate in '83 (deaths/100,000 miles) was about twice what it is now. Just as safe in '83? I don't think so.
One thing though is that the older designs of cars from the seventies were especially poor in crash safety compared to cars from around the mid 80’s on, and the lion share of the cars on the road then were those cars. That would have a big worsening effect on the crash statistics.
Car safety started improving in the late 50s and has steadily improved to where the fatality rate is now 1/16 of what is was in the mid fifties. Highway design started improving under Eisenhower with the Interstate system.
Almost exactly the same improvement has been seen in Canada which has similar cars and roads and legislated the same features, except for the insane seat belt ignition interlock of the 70s.
@ndemb - I was wondering how long that would take to surface. Like @Docnick said, the death rate has been dropping steadily. Just go back 15 years, the rate was 50% higher than it is today (1.70 vs. 1.10). Just about ZERO 1970s cars contributing to those numbers.
I wonder how much it really matters, anyway. I see the middle class shrinking and wonder how long people will be able to afford cars. That thought is what came to me when I saw the question, “Are Cars TOO Safe?” I was looking at the economic picture rather than the issue of whether or not the safety features have become operationally counterproductive. It wouldn’t matter too much how safe cars are if so many people have to walk or bike the streets and risk getting hit.
It wouldn't matter too much how safe cars are if so many people have to walk or bike the streets and risk getting hit.
Maybe…but that CAN’T happen over night…might take several generations.
Maybe...but that CAN'T happen over night....might take several generations.
If it somehow did happen so fast, that’d sure be a huge logistical mess. That’s one of the things many people worry about–whether the economy might collapse that quickly. I tend to think that social inertia would encourage ways to be found to keep things from changing too much too fast.
Let’s say it did come true…Then the US and World population would drop by more then 50% overnight - most through starvation. Sorry…but you need to come up with more real-world scenarios.
It almost happened around 1929 though.
Some of the most important ones are the ones we don’t see and never use untill a crash like structural integrity and air bags. At some point automatic braking when standard may eliminate tailgating at higher speeds that contributes to rear end collisions which will then take a dive in frequency. At the very least, I would like a car that’s tailgating emit flashing interior lights, an irritating sound and an electric shock ;=) though the steering wheel of the offending vehicle.
@ndemb "It almost happened around 1929 though. "
It did happened in 2007 !
There was a big “logistics mess”. If loosing one’s home and ability buy on time is considered one.
It almost happened around 1929 though.
Learn your history. Most people back then were living in cities. You didn’t have the sprawl like you do now. Without a vehicle it will take MILLIONS of people ONE FULL DAY just to go buy food. You are still being very unrealistic.
If I missed the point of OP. Is it that safety devices will make cars unaffordable ? I believe as a percent of average income, they have stayed pretty constant. ANY safety device that made the car unaffordable would not be in a car, either by itself or accumulative. There will be NO mandates for these devices that cause an undue hardship. As a matter of fact, new safety devices are an incentive to new car sales. The increase in the price of a car in real dollars is moderated by the increased efficiency in actually making the car.
@dagosa Yes, the real cost of car buying in terms of Income has actually fallen.
Back in 1987 my brother bought a Honda Accord with standard shift, air and a few other things. With all the taxes, ect. he paid $17,000 or so.
That same size car would now be a Civic, and with the same options would be about the same price, 26 years later! But the new Civic would have traction control, airbags, ABS, tire pressure indicators, and a few other safety items. But a dollar is worth a lot less today.
Even the cheapest econobox comes with all sorts of safety gear that was only available on luxury cars years ago. GM offered air bags way back on Buicks and Oldsmobiles @ $300 per set. No takers; they proved to the government.