Quote:
Originally Posted by jtbo
Those small particles are often used against diesel cars, what is not told at the same time is that gasoline cars emit much smaller particles, so small that particles actually can go trough your skin directly into blood stream and amounts are thousands of times more than those from diesel.
As usually most important is what is not told.
Crash safety is funny subject, how safe is motorcycle in a crash? You can still ride motorcycle same speeds as you can with cars, you can have passengers and even trailer too (albeit a small one), if safety is so important that cars need to have certain level of safety how they can allow motorcycles on roads?
Would it be any different if motorcycles would be used more widely? It is quite economical transportation and great at city where you can see much more and it would help greatly with traffic issues too if most vehicles were motorcycles.
Surely safety is good thing, but I think there is more about it than meets the eye.
Home accidents alone are hugely bigger killer, same for smoking and drinking, traffic is very small in comparision, but in traffic safety has been put on pedestal. There are probably some more than just safety that is reason for that.
There are so many illusions twisting our minds when it comes to safety that when you step back and look bigger picture it seems bit of funny how we are told to seek more safety from our cars and how there are even laws about it and especially how unsafe cars are made as killers, while kitchen knife at kitchen is far more deadly, probably welcome mat has worse record than those cars told to be 'unsafe'.
Modern day news and information is narrow sighted, relativity is forgotten and small things are broadcasted as huge things, which creates illusions, false views to our minds.
Safety is good thing of course, but how much is more than enough?
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Well I was surprised to find that car accidents are no longer the leading cause of accidental death as they have been for so many years. According to this article (yes it is 2009 so it may have changed a bit) it is now drugs....
Drugs Now Leading Accidental Death Cause : Discovery News
This now poses 2 very interesting questions, 1 not so relevant to our discussion. Are we over medicated without the proper controls? Then the more relevant one, has the crash standards and the safety features as marketing and bragging rights "my car has 10 air bags!" actually been a measurable good thing?
You mention kitchen knives, are you aware that in the UK there was a call to ban sharp pointed kitchen knives? There was also a stab resistant knife design proposed to be used by law.
Your point about motorcycles is good and they have typically been ignored with new safety laws because they are a small percentage of the vehicles and the perception that people accept the risk when they choose to ride. It's interesting that stability control is now mandatory on all cars but ABS isn't on bikes. Also they have always been around, I bet if there had never been motorcycles and someone invented one this year that the government would probably never allow them on the road for safety. Why can't we drive 4 wheel atvs around as city transportation? I'm trying to sell my bike now and one couple came to see it, they lived in downtown Toronto and wanted city transport, easy parking, no need to get an extra parking spot at the condo. He loved the bike, she was very concerned about dropping it. Can-Am has the trike that I think they should market as an urban vehicle.
The Japanese Kei cars are a good example of how to do things properly, they know they will not be able to pass all the same tests as a full size car, but there is value to having them so they create new standards for that class. The same has been done in the US with full size pick ups, there is a needed value for industry and business to have full size pick ups, there will be trade offs in fuel economy and safety but small business has to be able to have affordable options..... It's funny how it's easy to get exceptions to certain rules when you want to make fuel economy worse, but not better.