I foolishly ran a motorcycle into a parked car at somewhere between 40 and 60 miles per hour. Luckily, I got out of the deal alive.
It's a good thing stupid shit like that mostly happens to us when we're young and strong enough to survive it, maybe.
But it makes you wonder why, even though we cry over the fatalities if they're close to us, or shake our heads in abstract sadness if they're not, why we tolerate 40,000 or more deaths on the road every year?
Unfortunately, the answer is obviously money. Oil companies and auto companies stand to lose too much from sanity, or regulation of "The American Way" of limitless freedom. Buy your 16-year-old a car. Make sure they drive everywhere.
GRIST online ran a somewhat weepy but nonetheless interesting analysis of how bicyclists are treated in film. Basically, if you're on a bike and not in a car, you're a loser. Now, I drive too, and "I'm an excellent driver," unlike most of the rest of the world (and most of the rest of the world believes themselves to be "excellent drivers" also. They are not.), but I love biking and I'd love convenient (more convenient, I should say, it's not too bad in Bloomington) mass transit. One car per family SHOULD be enough. But until infrastructure catches up, we're pretty much stuck.
Infrastructure won't catch up until politicians do. Politicians won't catch up until we do. When we're ready to vote for people who aren't just whores for oil and big business, maybe fewer people will die. Maybe.
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