These and other bike culture images available at Microcosm Publishing
We live in such a car dominated culture that most people think only of the price of gas and maybe insurance when thinking about the cost of gas. Few people think of the other hidden costs like depreciation and the lost revenue from having tens of thousands of dollars tied up in a hunk of metal (hear that sucking sound, that’s your personal wealth leaving you.)
The loss of life associated with driving a car comes up even less when people think about the costs of the automobile. A person in the U.S. is killed in an automobile accident on average every 12 minutes (CDC, 2005.) This is the highest cause of accidental death in our country.
On a positive note, this week the Associated Press reported that due to higher gas prices, the traffic death toll for this year is expected to reach its lowest level since John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president. People are driving slower, driving less, and figuring out other ways to get around. Let’s hope this trend continues.
On a negative note, we are probably heading into a record year in the number of bicycle fatalities reported. Now that we as a society are starting to live with the true costs of our oil dependence, we are seeing how short sighted it has been to plan for only one mode of transportation. There is little infrastructure to accommodate all the people turning away from the car to get where they need to go. I can only hope with a new administration and a change in thinking at the state and local level, our leaders will begin to understand the way to improve our country is to invest in it, not cut taxes and privatize it.
Times are changing. Will we?
on Aug 26th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I just stopped by your blog and thought I would say hello. I like your site design. Looking forward to reading more down the road.
on Aug 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I wish I could remember the actual number of fatalities we had this year. It was soemthing like 37,000 – a number I think should be confirmed and then shared often and well, and when people don’t believe it, remind them how big a number that is and how many other things with far fewer deaths would considered simply unacceptable, no matter what the “benefits.”
on Aug 26th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
The last CDC figures for 2005 was 43,667 deaths by auto accident.
on Aug 30th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
The National Highway Traffic Safety Commission reported 42,642 US fatalities in 2006 (the last year I saw numbers for — it has gone down). That’s about 14 times the number of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., which were widely viewed as unacceptable. If Arab extremists want to kill Americans, they should make sure we have plenty of cheap gas.
on Aug 30th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Well put, Joe.
on Jan 13th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
[...] So I was just reading over at ATXBS that bicycles are on the list of ”items determined to be a potential safety hazard” and are banned by the Secret Service for the Obama inauguration. WTF? Airlines are starting to charge for bikes even if the fold into normal sized luggage, the Dallas bike coordinator is anti-bike lane of any kind, and now this! Never mind that cars are the real safety hazard in this country. [...]