I should add, that I raise cycling in this discussion, because that is where my widest experience of conflict on the roads is drawn from. The fact remains, an annual 3.5 people per day death rate for road users is higher than Australia's worst covid year at 2.9 deaths per day. Australia, the State of Victoria, especially, met covid head-on, with lockdowns, massive vaccination centres, public education, enforced masking in public places and a hard-handed police response to anybody who opposed or spread misinformation against the anti-pandemic measures imposed in 2020.
Where is the appropriate/commensurate approach to motoring and motoring-caused deaths? It is a more serious public health issue, simply on the numbers, at least. Nations like Netherlands, France, Denmark and many others in Europe are spending big on more people oriented cities. Paris "out-Copehangened Copenhagen" in the leadup to last years Olympics their and their roads death toll is plummeting, along with their carbon emissions. Switzerland has traffic fines set per individual on the basis of annual income. The rich man in his motorised penis extension pays more for speeding than a harried, single mum trying to get her kid to school on time. The fine for the mum is steep. I couldn't afford the fine for the rich bloke in his Porsche thinking he's cool by speeding.
There are "vaccinations" against road trauma. Sensible urban design, like the "Culdesac" apartments complex in Arizona, Copenhagen, Groningen, Amsterdam, Paris or Basel, in Europe, to name a handful. My city, Melbourne even adopts the "20 minute city" urban design approach, but still wastes money on infrastructure to funnel cars into a CBD that can't accommodate them when that same CBD is served by some of the best passenger rail in the world, yet gets only 2% of commuters onto the Metro! (Peak hour train travel is ridiculously "roomy" in Melbourne compared to Paris or New York, and our trains are better than New York's, at least.)
Anyway, enough of this rant. As the lifelong Australian expert in this discussion, I'm the expert in Australian road culture... so far. Any Aussies want to join in?
no subject
Where is the appropriate/commensurate approach to motoring and motoring-caused deaths? It is a more serious public health issue, simply on the numbers, at least. Nations like Netherlands, France, Denmark and many others in Europe are spending big on more people oriented cities. Paris "out-Copehangened Copenhagen" in the leadup to last years Olympics their and their roads death toll is plummeting, along with their carbon emissions. Switzerland has traffic fines set per individual on the basis of annual income. The rich man in his motorised penis extension pays more for speeding than a harried, single mum trying to get her kid to school on time. The fine for the mum is steep. I couldn't afford the fine for the rich bloke in his Porsche thinking he's cool by speeding.
There are "vaccinations" against road trauma. Sensible urban design, like the "Culdesac" apartments complex in Arizona, Copenhagen, Groningen, Amsterdam, Paris or Basel, in Europe, to name a handful. My city, Melbourne even adopts the "20 minute city" urban design approach, but still wastes money on infrastructure to funnel cars into a CBD that can't accommodate them when that same CBD is served by some of the best passenger rail in the world, yet gets only 2% of commuters onto the Metro! (Peak hour train travel is ridiculously "roomy" in Melbourne compared to Paris or New York, and our trains are better than New York's, at least.)
Anyway, enough of this rant. As the lifelong Australian expert in this discussion, I'm the expert in Australian road culture... so far. Any Aussies want to join in?